


For Us And For Them

by spectralPhobia



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen, Illustrated, Sburb is Jumanji, also 40 years in real life equals 3 years in-game here, also there are deaths of innocent bystanders - should've mentioned it earlier, basically Jumanji/Homestuck crossover, so John and the others are the same age as alphas when they come out, with HS monsters instead of jungle
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-10
Updated: 2015-01-25
Packaged: 2018-02-28 09:42:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 30,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2727659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spectralPhobia/pseuds/spectralPhobia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>UPD: I plan to rewite this fic one day. Right now it's very badly written and I'll probably delete it later. You've been warned.</p><p>---------------<br/>(...aka Jumanjistuck)</p><p>Four kids find a weird board game called SBURB, play it and disappear. Forty-four years later another set of kids finds the same game, plays it and learns that there are things worse than disappearing.</p><p><a href="https://ficbook.net/readfic/3213927">Russian translation</a> available.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: August 1980

**Author's Note:**

> Once upon a time I made a Jumanji/Homestuck crossover comic on tumblr. Then I decided to turn it into writing - mostly just to test my skills as a writer (and to see if I have any).  
> All the drawings you will see in this fic are mine - I like illustrating.  
> Also the prologue is the only chapter that's written using second-person narrative.

**> Be John.**

The air around you is getting quieter as the sun gradually gets closer to the horizon – it’s time to go home, but you are not ready, not just yet. You are thirteen, enjoying the last days of school-less summer and you just want this moment to last a little longer – the humid smell of a shallow river, the pavement still warm under your bare feet, Jade’s clear voice as she tells another story of her childhood when she lived with her grandfather and a dog, Dave’s funny commentary and Rose’s laughter. You let your gaze wonder around the surroundings lazily, taking in the golden trees, and an unmanaged beach overgrown with grass and weeds, when suddenly Rose’s sharp voice cut through your hazy thoughts.

“Everyone, look! What is that, in the river?”

“That would be seaweed, Rose”, Dave answers with a professor-like expression and adjusts his glasses to emphasise, which would’ve worked if he wasn’t wearing _sun_ glasses. “You see, seaweed is a form of marine aglae, you might know them as gross green water shit...”

“I am talking about what’s _in_ the seaweed, Dave!”

In any other situation Rose would reply with something witty or sarcastic, but this time she is far too preoccupied with what she’d seen. She runs to bunch of seaweed washed upon the beach, you waste no time in following her. When you, Jade and Dave catch up with her she has already pulled out what turned out to be a wooden box.

“Looks ancient”, Jade says, running her fingers over the carvings with faded paint. “SBURB. What does it mean?”

“Hell if I know”, Dave muses, “Maybe it’s in another language”.

You look at Rose expectantly; after all, you have always considered her to be the smartest member of your group, but she just shrugs. So you take the box and do the most sensible thing: open it.

“It could be a bomb, John, and we could be all blown up now”, Dave notes with a serious tone; you can’t understand if he is joking or not, so you just shake your head.

“It’s a board game”, you say, looking at multiple intertwining paths and a pair of shabby dice. “Someone has thrown it in the water... Must be worth playing!”

“I’m game!” Jade chimes in immediately and Dave nods.

“If we are going to play, let’s at least choose a better location, like my house”, Rose suggests.

You all agree at once, because it is a perfect suggestion – Rose’s house is a ten-minute walk from here, it’s huge and her mother never minds what her daughter and her friends are doing. The only problem you could possibly encounter is being late and upsetting your dad (you think as you pick up the box that is a lot heavier than it looks) but you don’t think you will stay longer than a couple of hours, and he knows where you went, so... Besides, you don’t want to make your friends wait for you; after all, you are the only one here who has someone to warn about being late: Dave’s parents are out of town and Jade doesn’t have any family.

When you reach the Lalonde residence, you go straight to your favourite room with many shelves, soft carpets and a fireplace. You lay the opened game on the table and finally take a good look at it. The left and right panels are covered in words; there is a circle made of black glass in the middle and eight tokens – little figures carved out of wood. You take one of the tokens – the one that looks like it is wearing a clown’s hat – place it on the first square of a path and pick up the dice.

“Nobody minds if I make the first roll? I carried this thing all the way here, I deserve it!”

“The floor is all yours, mister Egbert”, Dave salutes you and you grin back at him.

“Shouldn’t we at least read the rules first?” Rose, who sits on your left, frowns and shifts closer to the table. “Sburb: a game for those who wish to find a way to leave their world behind. You roll the dice to move your token, doubles get another turn, and the first one to reach the end wins”.

Jade moves the game towards her and continues reading the text from another panel: “Adventurers beware: do not start until you intend to finish. The exciting consequences of the game will vanish only when a player has reached Sburb and called out its name. ...Okay? For some reason I thought the rules are supposed to clarify what the players should do, not to confuse them”.

“And that is why I never read the rules, they always overcomplicate things”, Dave says and Jade laughs.

You roll your eyes.

“Guys, this is just a board game, and it is played like every other board game – you roll the dice”, you throw the little cubes on the surface to emphasize your words, “and move the token!”

You reach your hand out to do what you have just said, but the token moves on its own. Your heart skips a beat because you sure didn’t touch it, and didn’t see anybody else touch it and how is it possible then?!

“How did you do that?” Jade stares at you in disbelief.

“I didn’t!” You don’t care that your voice shakes; it is impossible for this wooden box to possess technology of the personal computers only rich kids have and portable telephones you’ve read about in your dad’s newspapers – simply impossible.

“Very funny, John. Did you put magnets under the table?” Rose actually bends to look down, and you are offended that she doesn’t believe you, but deep inside you realise that you wouldn’t believe yourself too.

“I swear I didn’t! Maybe it was you, Rose, and your twisted humour” You want to add something loud to convince them, but Dave cuts in before you can say anything.

“Look at the black circle!” and you do look at it, mesmerized as you see green words appear one by one, forming the text that you read aloud:

“ _You shall reside with Wind and Shade_

_Until a player rolls an eight_ ”.

“What is it, some kind of riddle?” you look at your friends, but none of them knows what it means. Jade knits her eyebrows together and tilts her head.

“Maybe it is an intellectual game? Like you should show your knowledge and guess what animal lives in sha- Oh no!”

You want to ask what happened, but your throat is not working anymore, you feel like you are suffocating and torn apart into pieces at the same time; the last thing you hear is Dave’s desperate “John!!”, Jade’s scream of panic, you feel like you are being dragged somewhere, you see Rose’s hands reaching out to you – and everything goes dark.

**> Be Rose.**

You are now Rose Lalonde and you look at your trembling hands, not believing that you’ve just seen your friend slip through them. Literally slip, turned into streams of light and colour. You lift your eyes and meet Jade’s bright green ones, wide and round almost like her glasses. You turn to face Dave, whose large sunglasses can’t cover the mortified look on his face. You reluctantly reach out and take the dice, half-heartedly expecting your friends to shout that it is too dangerous, don’t do it, Rose. But nothing follows as you pick up a token with a cat’s head and place it on a path closer to you, you have been friends for so long that you can understand each other without any words, and now you have reached a silent agreement that something has to be done.

“What do you think happened?” You ask, trying to sound calm and collected, like your mother has always taught you to behave in the face of danger.

Dave doesn’t say anything as he picks up a token with a bird’s head and a sword. Jade mimics him by taking a token with a dog’s head and says hesitatingly:

“Maybe it is just a dream?..”

But of course it’s not a dream – you know it, Dave knows it, even Jade knows it. It would’ve been too easy – and nothing ever is easy, another lesson your mother taught you.

“I am going in next,” you say, all the fear suddenly overcome with determination. “Perhaps I will get an eight, or at least a clue for how to get John back”.

Your friends nod in agreement, and you roll the dice. The token moving on its own accord is not as surprising as the first time you’ve seen it, but you still feel the insides of the table to make sure it’s not just an elaborate prank and John isn’t going to jump out from the door with a “Colonel Sassacre” book in his lands, laughing at you for falling for his trick. Although you could choose a thousand laughing Johns with their young magician’s books over what is really happening.

Unfortunately, the number you get is four, and you read the message that appeared on black glass:

“ _You will forget your home, your name_

_Until you learn to play the rain_ ”.

Well, it doesn’t sound like a clue at all. Jade probably thinks the same, because she says:

“It’s even more obscure than John’s”.

Remembering what happened to John you take a few steps back away from the table while trying to figure out the meaning of the riddle; but it’s too late, there’s no time to think – your hands become blurry and turn into thin lines that are being sucked into the black, hollow centre; Dave runs to you and grabs you from behind, trying to hold you in place, but how can you hold something that doesn’t belong to this plane of reality anymore?...

**> Be Dave.**

You are now Dave Strider and Striders don’t cry. Not that you wanted to cry in the first place – but you are holding empty air that used to be your dear friend Rose, and you just wanted to remind yourself of a number one rule your brother taught you. The number two rule was that Striders always take lead, that is why you grab the dice before Jade does.

“It keeps happening, Jade”, you say.

“Yes, thank you for reminding, I kind of noticed!” she exclaims angrily, and you know that she doesn’t mean to offend you. She is baffled and scared, just like you are.

You inhale deeply and look her straight in the eyes.

“Jade, if the game sucks me in too... Don’t make the next move. Just go and, I don’t know, call a scientist, try to find another way to get us out? Or even better, just go home and forget about it. Don’t go in”.

Jade looks at you like you’ve turned into something slimy and disgusting. She pokes a finger into your chest furiously and it hurts, but you know it’s nothing compared to how you hurt her with your words.

“Who do you think I am?! Some kind of filthy traitor? I will never ever ever leave you alone!”

“I’m sorry”, you sigh. You knew this would happen, Jade is the most loyal person you have ever met. But it was worth a try, you _had_ to offer her a chance to be safe.

Understanding what you meant, or maybe to soften her words, she hums, squeezes your free hand reassuringly and says firmly:

“The game must go on, roll the dice, Dave”.

And so you do. You look at the dice jumping and turning and say:

“Maybe this time it will be different and I will stay”.

“Of course you will”, Jade smiles, but squeezes your hand tighter as the dice stop. You token moves three squares forward and you read the message:

“ _All time is yours, as you desire,_

_But you’ll be trapped in the land of fire_ ”.

“Trapped...” Jade whispers and you know what is coming.

“Sick rhyme, Jade”. Your hand slips out of her grip.

**> Be Jade.**

You are now Jade Harley and you should be used to being alone. Firstly you felt alone when your parents died and you were sent away to live with your grandfather and his dog; then when they both died too and you learned what it is like to _truly_ be alone. You have almost given up, but then the school started and you’ve made these amazing friends, who became your new family – and now they are gone too, leaving you to breathe in the dusty air of this too-quiet room.

You could stand up and go away.

But the only condition you have when going places is having your friends by your side.

You simply can’t imagine doing anything else but following them wherever they went. So you take a moment to collect all the resolve you have and you roll the dice, begging the chance to give you an eight or a clue of how to get everyone back, but luck is not on your side today, because the message you read says:

“ _You should keep quiet and know your place,_

_For you’ve become a Witch of Space_ ”.

You watch the darkness erupt before you, full of constantly moving white lines and green sparks. Are you scared? Yes. But you are ready to face whatever is coming your way – face it and fight it. The darkness closes around you and you can’t see or hear or breathe. You are gone too.

Soon the room with the fireplace will be filled with worried voices of a tall blonde woman and a black-haired man with a pipe and glasses who will search every inch of the house calling out their children’s names; the policemen will come to investigate, along with a group of more blonde people who will scream at the woman – the house owner – and accuse her of horrible crimes. The man will try to reason with them, but the youngest of the blondes will punch him and break his glasses. The policemen will calm both the blondes and the man down and assure them that the case will be solved. The case won’t be solved, but the woman will be blamed; she will tell everyone that she didn’t do it and ask the man to believe her – but the man’s grief and the evidence presented by the blonde group will overweight his affections towards the woman and he will testify against her upon the trial. The game will be tucked away into one of the shelves, unnoticed, disregarded by the investigators as a simple kids’ toy, forgotten.

But right now it is lying opened on the table at the Lalondes’ house, in the room with a fireplace, four tokens slightly moved forward, signifying the fact their owners’ journey has only just started.


	2. Missing Pieces

The airport was buzzing with sounds of people, machines and constant announcements about lost luggage and delayed flights; the air conditioning did a poor job of fighting the summer heat.

In the middle of moving torrents of bodies, consisting of passengers pacing purposefully according to the airport maps and lost ones who joined them in hopes of getting washed somewhere with this stream, some people glanced back to look at the group of teenagers standing still: two boys and a girl. The tallest of the boys was wearing pointy shades and a letterman jacket with no letters, the other boy had ruffled black hair, rectangular glasses and sported a khaki backpack on his shoulders, and finally there was a girl whose cerulean dress's colour was so vibrant it inevitably attracted the attention of onlookers. Roxy Lalonde, who was a friend of the trio and also the reason Dirk, Jake and Jane have just flied over three states from Texas to Minnesota, has promised to meet them “precisely under the Arrivals sign and not an inch further!”, but she was late and they dared not to move.

Despite living so far away from her, all four had a pretty strong friendship, which surprised their families, because even though they knew how advanced the internet technologies are in 2024 they still couldn't understand how is it possible to have a friendship with an online friend as strong as with people you go to high school with and see every day.

Summer and winter were the only times they could met in person, and it was always Roxy who flew to Texas, one of the reasons being saving - it is obviously cheaper to buy one ticket than three. But finally they said that is was enough, and decided to come to visit her, and it didn't matter that the town Roxy lived in was rather old and small. It really was insignificant for either of them - as long as they were together every boring town could become exciting.

An angry person with a giant suitcase shoved past Dirk and nearly ripped the bag off his shoulder, which happened for fifth time already, so he stepped closer to Jane and Jake; he reached out to take his boyfriend's hand automatically, but decided against it at the last moment. Jane clasped the handle if her blue bag tighter, looked at the giant airport clock that stated that it was ten o'clock in the morning and frowned:

"Roxy was supposed to meet us fifteen minutes ago, did she forget?"

"Of course she didn't, don't worry, Jane", Jake said. "I bet she is in a traffic congestion".

Jane rolled her eyes.

"It's a small town, Jake, I doubt they even know what traffic is".

"Or she got into an argument with a taxi driver about the efficiency of self-operating cars again", Dirk added. Roxy was famous for her excessive knowledge about modern technology and inability to keep her mouth shut when encountering people who are blind to the flaws of said technology. Speaking of...

"Hey guys!" Bright female voice covered the unhappy grumbles of the airport people and a tall girl rushed towards the group, her long striped scarf flapping behind, her baggy t-shirt fluttering like a sail in the middle of a storm. Jane didn't manage to find a moment to say hello when she suddenly found herself rib-crushingly hugged, her face full of Roxy's shiny blonde hair and her glasses askew.

"I'm so glad you could come!" She exclaimed, looking at the boys over Jane's shoulder.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world, Ro-Lal", Jane breathed out and Roxy giggled at the nickname, highfiving Dirk and Jake, still hugging Jane with one hand. Neither Dirk nor Jake didn't mind the lack of physical contact with their friend, even though Roxy loved everyone equally as friends, they knew her feelings for Jane did not end with mere friendliness - even if Jane herself didn't realize it.

“Sorry I’m late, boys and girls, my mom couldn’t get out of my hair again”, Roxy finally released Jane. She grimaced and continued in a mockingly high-pitched voice: “Roxy, have you made sure your room is clean? Roxy, what time do they arrive? Roxy, are you positive that they are okay with sharing one room?”

She punched Dirk’s shoulder lightly and laughed.

“Sorry guys, my house is not the Roxxindsor Castle like I want it to be, we can only afford one guest room”, she smiled mischievously and winked. “Although I’m pretty sure Janey here won’t mind sharing a bed with me to give you boys some privacy, wonk-wonk!”

Jake fixed his glasses, looking a tad embarrassed by her words and laughed.

"Oh shucks, Roxy, you don't have to bring this up".

Dirk's expression didn't change, as always - he didn't like Jack's lack of enthusiasm about their month-old relationship, but never said anything out loud in fear of ruining the fragility of it.

People were shooting frustrated glares at Roxy and her scarf that was spread on the floor for a good couple of meters. A small child stumbled over it and started crying; his mother looked at the scarf owner loathingly, and Roxy deadpanned:

"Survival of the fittest".

Despite the hilarity of the scene, they decided it would be the best to proceed to the taxi waiting for them before they could get in any trouble. The ride to the Lalondes' house was smooth and filled with friendly chatter about their flight experiences; when they arrived to their destination they saw a rather small but neat two-storeyed house with light brown walls and a garden consisting of several bushes blossoming with pink flowers.

"Welcome to the cavern", Roxy said, kicking the front door open. "Mom cooked us some welcoming breakfast, do you want it or do you prefer going to straight to sleep? It is ten AM, after all".

"We are fine, we slept on our way here. Well, some of us did", Jane smiled lightly.

"I would very much prefer to greet missus Lalonde instead", said Jake, "And thank her for all the troubles of accepting us".

"Oh, I assure you it is no trouble at all, dear boy", a woman has emerged from one of the rooms, causing everyone to jerk in surprise. She was wearing a rather formal white dress with a strict silhouette, her short blonde hair were arranged in a pixie cut. Other than different age, the woman looked just like Roxy. She looked them over rather unemotionally, and Roxy said:

"Hey Mom".

"Why don't you carry their bags in the guest room, darling", Mrs. Lalonde looked at her daughter and extended her elegant hand towards the staircase.

"Its fine, Mrs. Lalonde, we've got it covered", said Dirk, but the woman paid little attention to him.

"Whatever you say, moooom", Roxy drawled the vowels wearily. She took the bags, turned to her friends with widened eyes and whispered so that her mother couldn’t hear, "She wants to interrogate you in private" before taking off.

  
“So how about we make some introductions?” Mrs.Lalonde asked when Roxy disappeared out of sight. She beckoned the teenagers as she turned and walked gracefully towards the kitchen. She was looking and moving in a way that better suited an aristocrat living in a family mansion than a woman with a simple house in the suburbs.

“Sure, Madame!” Jake came forward and held out a hand expecting a handshake. “It is a pleasure to meet you, my name is Jake English and I am proud to call myself Roxy’s friend. I am sixteen, I go to South Houston High School along with this lovely gentleman and lady whom I know for almost six years. My interests include archeology and adventuring, I also enjoy the art of cinematography and colour green. Thank you so much for invitation, this visit will sure be swell!”

Dirk and Jane exchanged glances behind his back – they were sure that Roxy’s mother didn’t mean him to sum up his entire life story in a form of a video game character’s introduction page, but apparently she was satisfied with it as she took Jake’s hand, raising her eyebrows ever so slightly. She then turned to Jane who cleared her throat and decided to go with the same pattern.

“Hello, I am Jane Crocker, and like Jake said we go to the high school together, whick means I am also sixteen. I love baking and um... playing the piano. Thank you for having us here, your house looks great”.

She was rewarded with a short nod and her eyes travelled to Dirk next, lingering on his pointy shades and spiky hair disapprovingly. Dirk didn’t fail to notice and said with his usual tone of perfectly schooled neutrality:

“Dirk Strider”.

Mrs.Lalonde’s unimpressed look turned into an icy glare at the mention of the name.

“Strider. I see”. She turned sharply, but after a couple of seconds of composing herself faced them again with a much friendlier look and calmer voice. “I am Ruth Lalonde, Mrs.Lalonde for you. The bathroom is upstairs if you want to take a shower, Roxy will show you the guest room. Breakfast will be on the table, waiting for you when you come back”.

With that said, she walked out of the kitchen with the same elegant queen-like moves, leaving the trio exchanging confused glances.

“Well, good to know Roxy’s mom is head over heels about us”, Dirk said.

“She is a tiny bit weird, but she has an aura of a fine woman. Roxy said it was an interrogation, she was just making sure we are not some hooligans who are here to assault her or ravish her belongings”, Jake decided to defend her.

“Sure, four years after Roxy’s continuous visits to Texas is the right moment to worry about her online friends being criminals”.

Jane giggled. “Maybe she took a good look at your face which helped her to come to this wonderful logical conclusion”.

“She sure looked at me like she’s just seen my picture with the words WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE and a reward attached this morning”, Dirk answered.

“Plot twist: we were friends with Roxy for five years because it was our master plan all long - to rob this house”, Jake laughed.

“Okay, boys, it is not polite to laugh at someone behind their back”, Jane said, cutting off her giggles, but they renewed when she saw Jake's smile changing into a horrified look, like someone has just threatened to take his badge of a "Master of proper manners" away.

Dirk simply shrugged. “Whatever. Anyway, I’m calling dibs on that shower, see you in a dash, after I get a good taste of the  _north_  North American water”.

His friends nodded and went upstairs to check the spare room Roxy had prepared for them.

After twenty or so minutes of "tasting" and combing his hair Dirk put on his orange jacket over a black sleeveless shirt and went down on the first floor, letting Jake take his place. There he found Roxy sitting on the kitchen countertop stuffing her mouth with cupcakes, her long scarf falling down on the beige tile floor.

"Sup", she mumbled and a few cupcake crumbles fell on her lap. "Mom is out, she said she needed to meet auntie Iris asap, dunno what's the big deal. So how did the big examination went, did you break under her pressure and tell all your credit card numbers?"

"She doesn't seem to like me, but apart from that everything was peachy", Dirk leaned against the counter and grabbed one of the sandwiches Mrs.Lalonde prepared for them.

"Don't be silly, she doesn't even know you!" Roxy said, her words muffled. "I'm sure she just wants to look intimidating. But enough talk about Mom, whom did you come to visit, me or her?" she exclaimed with fake indignation.

Dirk voted in favour of this proposition by nodding and biting in his sandwich, and the two of them were quickly joined by Jake who ran down jumping two stairs at a time making loud  _thump_  noises every time his heavy boots collided with the stairs, his unbuttoned green shirt flying behind like a cape; he looked a lot fresher and happier than he was on the plane.

"So what is the cultural program you have planned, Roxy? Can't wait to get out of four walls", he said immediately and mirrored Dirk's position by leaning against the counter too.

Roxy's face lightened up and she started fiddling with the scarf excitingly. "Glad you asked! There are so many things I want you guys to see, like the park and the fork sculpture, the river, another park, central square... and another place which is a secret for now!"

"Amazing, I love secrets!" Jake smiled a giant toothy grin.

"Oh Jake, you gonna love this place!" she cried joyfully and threw her scarf in the air, which inevitably fell down and hit Jake in the face.

"Ouch", he pouted. "Hold your scarf on the leash, will you. Why do you even wear this thing, it is summer  _and_ you are indoors".

"It's a part of my identity", Roxy said, tugging the scarf back. "Gotta have one when your family looks like a bunch of ectobiological clones. I mean why do you think Dirk wears his shades all the time?"

"I don't  _think_ , I  _know_ ", Jake said with confidence and Dirk looked at him curiously. They have never discussed his reasons directly, but he wondered what Jake was able to pick up on his own. "It's because of his eye colour. And also because of something about hiding his emotions, but I think it's just a load of cockamamie".

Dirk let out a dry laugh. Not a lot then.

"What?" Jake protested and poked his side jokingly. "It doesn't work very well, I can read you like an open book!"

"Yes. Sure you can".

Roxy jumped at the chance to change the topic and started describing a park they were going to visit next and how she spent her childhood playing space pirates there. Shortly after Jane came down too, changed into a new puffy blue dress.

"Looking gorgeous as usual, Jane dear!", Roxy looked at her adoringly and waved a little.

Jane saw the trio grouped near the counter and looked at them over her red-rimmed glasses pointedly: "Is everyone here allergic to chairs?"

"We are, in fact, allergic to sitting and getting on the move already would be dandy, my friend!" Jake answered.

And that was what they did. The town Roxy lived in was small and they felt like they travelled through time several decades in the past when walking through streets looking at the mix of modern architecture and styles that were popular in 1990s and 2000s - they decided against taking any form of transportation seeing how the path Roxy has planned lied through a lot of small parks and gardens, including the Sculpture Garden featuring Fork and Strawberry, a sculpture that Roxy said had plagiarized the famous Spoonbridge and Cherry. The fork was a lot smaller than the original and Roxy said it was made from cheaper materials; they spend almost two hours gazing at it from the corner of their eyes while sitting under a tent in the garden, eating frozen yogurt and telling stories and memories about their online shenanigans and school adventures.

After getting some much needed rest, they walked down to the narrow river that smelled like seaweed; it was hot, so Jane's shoes were taken off long ago to let her feet relax. Roxy, on the other hand, didn't seem to feel either heat or tiredness, she was bouncing around her friends like a ball of inexhaustible energy.

"Oh my, prepare yourselves, because our next stop is awesome!" She said, waving her purple scarf around.

Jake's face lightened up that instant. "Good gravy, is that the secret place you promised us?"

"It is indeed, so hurry-hurry-hurry", she sang.

As soon as they arrived to their destination, Roxy turned on her heels dramatically and spread out her hands.

"Welcome to the pinnacle of our journey - the old abandoned Lalonde residence!"

The place Roxy was talking about turned out to be an old house. It was a huge, three-storeyed building that was towering over the four friends, its windows nailed up with crude wooden plates; the paint of the walls was ragged and choppy, covered in dust and dirt; this and the fact that everything in the garden was withered, yellowish and dry gave the house an unwelcoming, unpleasant look.

"Whoa Rox", Jake whistled. "Is this a  _real_ ancient house? I thought they demolished every single one after that clean-your-ground law!"

"Nope, this one stayed. As ancient as your grandma's undies, straight from the 1950s, baby". She looked really proud of herself and pulled a key out of her pants. "Took it from Mom's locker, she didn't even notice".

"Open up, the adventure awaits!" Jake stepped to the door eagerly. "Let us explore the unknown, just like in the movies!"

Roxy began fiddling with the key and the lock, and Dirk turned to Jake. "I would tone down the excitement if I were you. In every movie an upbeat guy who loves life is the first to die", Jake didn't seem to be affected by promises of forthcoming death, and Dirk added: "Don't worry though, I will save you from all the dangers of not being a protagonist".

He pressed his hand to the chest solemnly and Jake laughed.

"Who  _is_  the protagonist among us then?"

"I'd say Roxy, because she initiated everything", Jane suggested.

Roxy looked up from the lock she was fruitlessly shoving the key in. "What, me? A protagonist? Whatcha talking about, I'm just a simple girl with simple dreams. If anyone it should be you, Janey". She waved her free hand vaguely in Jane's direction.

Dirk nodded: "Actually it makes sense, without Jane we wouldn't even be friends", and Jake added "Agreed here, she was the first one to introduce herself to us on the first day of school, and also the one who pestered Roxy for the first time. So... Thanks, Jane!".

Jane blushed slightly from all the compliments.

Then Roxy shouted "Done!!" and the door was finally opened; the hall they saw when they entered the house was... hostile would be the best word to describe it. Everything was dark apart from some spots lightened up by stray rays of sunshine that were seeping through the spaces between plates on the windows; their steps echoes in silence, interrupted by an occasional squeak of wooden floors as they observed the insides of the house. The furniture and decorations were still here, untouched, but covered with semi-transparent white fabric - it made the house look like it was filled with ghosts. They passed several covered statues, the outlines that were visible through the cloth suggested that those were wizards in pointy hats, holding various magical objects like a crystal ball and wands. The previous owner of the house must have been really fascinated with magic.

The walls were decorated with paintings; Jane lifted the fabric covering one of them and regarded the fine details and careful brush strokes that formed a portrait of a woman - she looked like an older, sterner Roxy. "Lily Lalonde, 1972" said the caption.

"Everything is so old here", Jane breathed out in awe.

"I told you you guys'll like it", Roxy threw her hand around Jane's shoulders and smiled. "Vintage stuff for Janey, mysterious house exploration for Jakey, and for Dirk... Sorry man, I know you are not really into antiquities, but my great-grand-something uncle used to collect swords, so maybe you'd be interested in those".

"Cool", Dirk said. Some may think that knowing how to wield a sword is an outdated and unnecessary skill, but it was his hobby and he didn't really care what other faceless nameless people had to say.

The room with the swords was different: if the hall had an aura of mystery, this room just felt pitiful. The swords were glistening dimly under the cover of dust, the air smelled like wet carpets, mold and - for some reason - seaweed.

Jane walked to one of the massive cupboards and traced her fingertips over the surface, admiring the carvings - they left traces in dust; Jake, who was looking through little caskets standing there, inhaled and wrinkled his nose: "Golly, Roxy, what is that smell? Did someone die in here?"

"As a matter of fact, yes", Roxy answered nonchalantly.

"What?!" All three heads snapped in her direction immediately.

Roxy looked at her friends, pleased with the effect her words made, but her smile faded when she began talking again. "Yeah, I mean that's the reason why nobody has ever bought this house - it has some pretty dark history. Old lady Lalonde, my grand-aunt, has killed four kids in this house, including her own daughter. They never found the bodies; who knows - maybe they are still hidden here somewhere..."

The atmosphere felt uneasy, Jane took her hands off the cupboard and crossed them on her chest, Dirk and Jake exchanged worried glances.

"Is this a real story though?" Jane asked, tilting her head, and Roxy looked at her, confused.

"Of course it is! Do you think I'd just scare you for shits and giggles?"

"No, Roxy, it's just that... a lot of stories you tell are... made-up", Jane struggled to chose right words in order not to offend her best friend. Roxy had vivid imagination, she loved urban legends and loved believing, so to say; as a result of everything combined they usually found themselves listening to Roxy's stories about paranormal and supernatural, she was convinced those were undeniably true. Jane hated debunking Roxy's believes because she felt like she was disappointing her every time, but she thought in the end it was for the best.

Roxy shook her head confidently. "No, this one is real. The realest piss right here, my Mom told me this legend..."

"So it is a legend after all?"

"Yes, but it is based on true facts!" Seeing that Jane still didn't believe her she took her hand. "Wanna proof? I'll show you the proof, c'mon!"

She rushed everyone out of the sword room and went down the corridor, navigating it in a masterly fashion of a professional explorer, her friends were careful to avoid bumping into more wizard statues. When they entered the new room, Roxy strode to one of the shelves purposely and began shuffling some papers while the others took in the surroundings. They were in a library.

"Blast it, miss Lalonde, you never cease to impress", Jake said, looking up at the shelves filled with no doubt old books containing all kinds of knowledge. He instantly strolled away to look at them closer, but had to come back when Roxy pulled out a page out of a stack of newspapers and pushed it towards them triumphantly.

"I knew I've read it here somewhere! See, here are your facts!"

Friends gathered around it, bowing their heads together. The list was yellowish with age, but intact - it seems that its owner kept their belongings with care. The place where Roxy's finger pointed had a short news item under the title FOUR CHILDREN MISSING. The text read:

_"Yesterday's night was darkened with an unfortunate incident: four children, one of them being a daughter of Mrs. Lily Lalonde, were reported missing. The police will commence the search immediately. The newspaper office would like to express our deepest condolences to the families; we all hope the children will get to their homes safe and sound"._

And that was it, to details or pictures. Dirk turned the page to look at the date -  _August the 19th 1980_  was written in small letters on the top of the page.

"Old newspapers?" He asked, wanting her to elaborate.

"Yeah", Roxy replied, "My great-grand uncle, the one with the swords, used to collect newspapers as well. Read this", she showed them two other pages, labeled as  _August the 25th_  and  _September the 9th_  respectively. The first article was also short, but written in a more frustrated tone - it stated that the search was futile so far, despite the best private detectives being hired. The second article was longer; it was an interview with Lily Lalonde and several other people, entitled A LOCAL ENTREPRENEUR GOES TO JAIL, with a subheader that said  _"A woman murders her thirteen-year-old daughter and her classmates"_. Jane skimmed the text quickly and pushed it away with a disconcerted look.

"May I have it?" Jake asked, pointing at the full stack of newspapers Roxy was still holding; she nodded and he began carefully looking through them.

Jane turned to Roxy, sighing apologetically. "I'm sorry I didn't believe you at first".

"It's okay, I know you need more materialistic evidence", she answered kindly and patted Jane on the shoulder. "Besides, we always should have someone who take a sober view of things", and Jane relaxed. Roxy was an amazing friend.

"Um, Dirk?" Jake asked suddenly, without looking up from the page he was reading. "Were they any Daves in your family?"

Dirk didn't hesitate before responding: "No. Why?"

"Look at this", Jake showed him the page with four little black-and-white pictures. "They published the names of the missing kids, and one of the blokes' names is Dave Strider".

Dirk frowned and took the page to read it. Indeed, there were four pictures of the missing kids - a boy in rectangular glasses named John Egbert, then there was Jade Harley who had long messy hair and round glasses, Rose - a blonde girl whose surname he didn't even have to read, she had Lalonde heritage written all over her face, and finally, there was Dave.

_Dave Strider, age 13, born in Topeton, MN, last seen in Lalondes' residence..._ They even promised a reward to whoever finds any information about his whereabouts. But Dirk's family was small and he was sure he knew everyone from cover to cover - but even if he didn't, the event of this magnitude would not have slipped out of his relatives' discussions. Besides, the Striders' roots were buried deep into the Texas grounds, that's what his brother has always said (of course before his movie career started to go up and he decided that his roots belong to California now). He looked up and saw Jake watching him expectantly, and realized that he didn't say any of this aloud.

"Probably just a namesake", he shrugged but took the newspapers and began turning the pages looking for a familiar name, with Jake peering over his shoulder.

"This Dave fellow even looks like you, you know", Jake said.

"Don't see any similarities". Maybe only blonde hair and the fact he worn shades. And nose. And a couple of other facial features. But apart from it - nothing.

"Whoo, a mysterious family member", Roxy said and stopped Dirk's hand when she spotted familiar surnames. "More Striders and Lalondes!"

The article on that page was entitled THE END OF THE CASE OF MISSING CHILDREN and had pictures of various people in a courtroom. Dirk scanned the text searching for the name Strider and found it in the middle of the article. He started reading the paragraph silently:  _...The side of the accusers is represented by Joel Egbert and Dean Strider, who seemingly decided to unite their forces against the murderer of their children, despite a scandal that preceded earlier this week. As our readers might remember, Strider's older son, Dale, has initiated a fight with Egbert because the latter expressed support for Lily Lalonde. Of course, it was before he knew about the evidence carefully collected by Striders, and now the two has agreed on a temporary truce to take Lalonde down - a truce that will mostly likely end with the trial's end. Of course this means the Lalonde enterprise will forever carry the stigma of its founder's horrible deeds and might as well be considered closed. The consequences and the future of our town's economy will be discussed in the next issue of Topeton Daily..."_

Dirk lifted his eyes and met Roxy's gaze. So apparently Striders were the reason Roxy's family has lost their company, status and money? "I'm sorry", he said, but Roxy waved her hand dismissively.

"Because of the Strider dude? Don't apologize, it was forty years ago" Her expression became mournful. "It is pretty sad though, I feel so sorry for Rose and the other three".

"And scary", Jane added. "I know that police solves 99% of the crimes nowadays, but still, if I heard about children being killed today I would be scared".

"No, Janey, wanna know what the real scariest part is?" Roxy looked around, making sure everyone paid attention to her. "Since they all died here people say that if you keep absolutely quiet and listen closely, you can hear their ghosts crying out for help..."

Jane's concern died and turned into slight annoyance as soon as she heard the word "ghost".

"Ghosts are not real", she deadpanned, without choosing softened words this time. Dirk and Jake exchanged looks again and subconsciously scooched closer to each other. Both didn't deny they admitted a possibility of an unworldly presence existing.

But Jane was relentless in her attempts to bring everyone to their senses.

"Roxy..."

"Shhhhh, let's listen!" Roxy's eyes were closed, she was straining her ears.

"It was scientifically proven that ghosts are simply a..." Jane was interrupted by a sound of drumming which, despite apparently coming from a different room, could be heard loud and clear.

"What the..." Jake whispered, and Roxy's eyes flied open in shock, like she couldn't believe she was right.

"OMG, it is true, I've never heard anything like this before, but it is  _true_!" she jumped, grabbing Jane's hand again and urged her to come with her.

"It could just be the pipes", Dirk suggested, sticking his hands into the pockets of his orange jacket, but followed Roxy and the sound anyway.

"Argh, I  _hope_  it's the pipes", Jake looked worried as he went after the girls and his boyfriend.

Jane's voice was full of disappointment. "Don't tell me you believe in ghosts, Jake".

Jake raised his hands in defense. "I don't! But... I also kind of do? I don't know how put it into words, I have a complicated relationship with ghosts".

"There is a very simple term for that, you are ghost agnostic", Dirk said.

"Ghostic lol", Roxy added, "and Janey is ghost atheist then", she laughed and Jane joined her. So what if her friend is draging her to see a non-existent ghost and it is going to end with nothing but disappointment, they all are having fun and it's all that matters.

They feel silent after that, listening to the sound; the drumming got louder and louder as they passed different doors and rooms, it was starting to sound desperate, like it couldn't wait to wrap them in beat and play the drumming rhythm on their empty heads, the drums were playing the song that promised of victory, the great reward that will pay for all their misery, it was a call of destiny and led them toward a great ending, it begged them to join it in escaping out of ordinary life, to choose the way up and to fall down, to become heroes, so perfect, so great...

The drumming stopped.

They were in a room with a fireplace.

At least the fireplace was the first thing their eyes feel onto - the giant one, made of red bricks, with various cast-iron pokers and chimney brushes - the dark room was much bigger than that, two brown couches were standing next to each other, the wall colour was undistinguishable because of all the spiderweb and dust and tall shelves covering it.

"I think it was coming from one of them", Jake said, pointing at the shelves, and began looking for an object that could be the source of the noise, while Roxy twirled around to see whether something unworldly has decided to manifest itself.

"See, no ghost here. It were the house facilities after all", Jane said and peeked out of the window that was nailed up carelessly and had wide spaces between the planks. It was two in the afternoon, the sun was still up high in the clear blue sky, but soon it would begin its inevitable descend.

"No... It's this thing, I am sure", Jake said, showing them a wooden box he took from the shelf.

"A box?" Dirk looked at the object suspiciously: it didn't have any visible display of technology being used in it.

"Yes, it is strange, but take it, I think you will understand", he shoved the box into Dirk's arms and... yes, he understood what Jake meant. The box was inviting, for the lack of a better word. " _Hold me_ " it said, " _open my secrets_ ". The picture carved in the surface displayed several small figures looking up in the sky that was full of meteors falling down on them; the words SBURB were coloured green. Four circles in the corners had pictures of a spirograph, a planet covered with clouds, a pentagon and a simply drawn house with lines dividing it into five parts.

The room lacked a table, so Dirk laid the box on the couch and four friends surrounded it - Dirk and Roxy sat on the couch on left and right of the object respectively, Jane and Jake kneeled before it on the floor. Roxy opened the box and began reading the instructions inside.

"A game for those who want to escape... Bla-bla-bla... Don't start if you don't intend to finish... It's a board game! Oh, I loved those when I was a baby!"

"I don't think we can play it", Jane's attempts to take a token with a clown hat were unavailing - it didn't move. "Someone glued all the tokens to the board". She took a pair of dice instead.

"Laaaaame", Roxy groaned, throwing her head back.

"There are other tokens", Jake pointed out, and he was right - there were four other little figurines, but they were smaller and looked all the same, with a simple, traditional pin-like form, unlike the other four.

"Well of course they  _had_  to glue all the creative ones and leave us all the boring stuff", Roxy grimaced. "I already hate whoever did this, so inconsiderate".

She looked at Jane, who was shifting the dice in her hand absent-mindedly. "Are you sure you still want to play this vandalized game, Jane dear?"

Jane shrugged. "I don't know... I guess if you don't want to play, then I don't either".

Roxy jumped on her feet. "Okay, then it's settled! If you don't mind, I will continue searching for a ghost; you won't escape from Roxy Lalonde, a professional ghostbuster!"

And Jane dropped the dice.

Dirk started sliding off the couch when an unexpected movement at the surface of the game caught his attention. Firstly, the token moved eight squares forward, Dirk noticed that Jane's dice fell with numbers three and five facing the ceiling and briefly wondered what kind of sensors it used.

Secondly, the black glass circle came to life, displaying floating green letters forming several lines.

"Oops, it seems I accidently activated it", Jane said and read the rhyme aloud:

" _You saved a man from certain death,_  
 _Now give him room to catch a breath._  
 _But there's no unpunished deed,_  
 _To hide or fight - choose what you'll need"_.

"Seems destiny wants you to play this game after all", Jake said. Jane opened her mouth to answer but before words could even leave she was interrupted by a small light sphere appearing out of nowhere with a whooshing sound. The four teenagers look at it mesmerized; it hovered in the midair for a while, pulsing with white light like a heartbeat (they thought they could even see an outline of a spirograph in it), and suddenly grew two sizes bigger and exploded with a powerful soundwave and a bright flare that forced their eyes closed. Jane and Jake were knocked off and fell on their backs, Dirk and Roxy managed to stay on the couch, holding onto its arms tightly. When the light dissipated and they could open their teary eyes, it revealed a person in blue clothes, grasping a multicoloured hammer, with his black hair sticking in all possible directions and wide blue eyes staring at them in shock behind rectangular glasses.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Topeton is a made-up name for a made-up town.  
> I picked Minnesota to be a centre of the action because it is one of the three US states I've been to - the other two being Texas and Maine, and I didn't want to write about Maine, it has too much ocean and I'm not Stephen King.  
> Thanks to volt229 on tumblr for creating the lines "You saved a man from certain death, Now give him room to catch a breath".


	3. Out Of The Shadows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Go get your gun, get your gun, and let's find out what it does...

John stood in the centre of the room trying to put together what has happened. He was just walking on the blue grounds under the pitch-black sky of the Land of Wind and Shade - he decided to name it after the rhyme that has sent him there - and the next moment he felt being squeezed and dragged through the time and space, a vaguely familiar feeling that he had experienced only once before - the day when they found that god forsaken game.

He looked around carefully.

He was in the room which he lost all hope in seeing again, the last place he saw before disappearing from his world, the fireplace room in the Lalonde residence, although it looked different from how he remembered it, a lot darker, like nobody has lived here for a long time.

There also were four kids, a black-haired girl with red glasses was sitting on the floor, looking at him with an open mouth, she obviously fell down a moment ago, a boy in glasses was sitting next to her, his hand moved away from his face, revealing dark green eyes widened in shock and buck teeth similar to John's. He glanced to the right and saw a blonde boy in pointy shades, he was staring at him in astonishment; John moved his gaze to the left and there was a blonde girl in a scarf, blinking rapidly.

It seemed like the time was dragging on and on forever, but in reality it took him a mere second to process all the thoughts. He really should say something to these kids, at least he had a phantom of an idea of what happened, they must be confused as hell.

"Holy  _crap_ , a real ghost", he heard a girl on the left whisper.

"What, no, I am not a ghost", he protested, turning to the girl. "I know it sounds weird, but I..." He suddenly saw movement out of the corner of his eye; but his reflexes were advanced thanks to the continuous fights with underlings on the Land of Wind and Shade and he turned around to face the blonde boy, who was no longer sitting on the couch, and jumped just in time so that the fireplace poker the boy swung at him managed to touch only a tip of his nose.

He was prepared for the next attack and the poker collided with his hammer with a loud  _zing_.

He took a step back and raised his hands in surrendering position. "Look, I mean you no harm..."

The boy ignored him and tried to attack again, but the blonde girl grabbed his bicep and held him in place.

"Dirk, wait, let's hear him out!”

Dirk grumbled, but stopped, and stood in front of the boy and girl with black hair - both of them up on their feet by now, with looks of mixed curiosity and fear - and took a defensive stance, holding a fireplace poker like a sword.

     

"Thank you", John said to the blond girl heartily and flashed her a smile. She actually smiled back slightly.

"Drop the weapon and state your business", the boy said coldly, watching him like he was a predator who was about to devour them all. John sighed. Well, he couldn't blame him; everything was really strange; so he put the hammer away and raised his hands just above the shoulder level again.

"Who are you?" the buck teeth boy squinted suspiciously. "If not a ghost".

"And how did you get here?" this question was from the girl in red glasses.

"I am human", John said. "And as for how I got here... I should ask you really, you did something that pulled me out!"

"It looked like teleportation, didn't it, Roxy?" the glasses girl asked.

The blonde girl - it seemed her name was Roxy - hummed in agreement. "It did indeed. But for a box this small to contain a teleportation device... I don't know".

John jumped at the idea immediately. "What box? What teleportation?"

The glasses girl looked at him for a second as if deciding whether to tell him or not. "Does the word Sburb ring a bell?"

John couldn't resist scowling at the hated name. "Amplify the word yes by 1000% and that will be my answer", he said darkly. "Wait, how do you know about Sburb?"

"The question is - what do  _you_  know about Sburb?" Dirk entered the conversation again.

"Wait a friggin second", said the buck teeth boy, frowning, "Are you Egbert? John Egbert?"

That shocked him even more than hearing them talking about Sburb. "How do you know my name?!"

"What are you talking about?" Roxy asked at the same time, and, of course, the boy chose to answer her.

"The picture from the newspaper, remember? I think that's him".

"Ooooh, I see... Wait, no, I'm lost again. He should be a dusty old geezer by now".

John coughed, trying to bring the attention back to him. "Hello-o, you still haven't answered me! How do you know about Sburb and my name? How did you bring me back?"

"I thought we were the ones asking questions here", Dirk was still glaring at him.

"Everyone, stop!" the glasses girl look at all of them sternly. "We won't get anywhere if we keep talking in a mess! Let's be organized. First of all, I ask everyone to sit down. And Dirk, put the poker away, you are not on a battlefield".

John, as well as the rest of the kids, obeyed her authoritative tone and sat on the floor in a circle.

"I am Jane", the girl said when everyone settled. "This is Roxy", the blonde girl raised her hand in greeting, "Jake", the black-haired boy nodded, "and Dirk".

"I am John Egbert, but it looks like you've already knew that", John said and Roxy gasped quietly, pressing a hand to her lips.

"This is what we are going to do", Jane said. "We ask one question - you answer. Then you get to ask us a question, and so on and so forth. Understood?"

John nodded. She was right, being organized is going to simplify everything.

"I am asking first", she continued. "Where did you come from?"

"From another planet. But I'm not an alien. Some time ago I played a game called Sburb, it sucked me in and threw me into another world", he said, feeling like being on a stage during a middle school play under their prying glances. "I lived there for years and even worked out some kind of routine... And then a couple of minutes ago I got pulled out of it randomly. That is all I know, I didn't do anything. Does it answer your question?" He struggled but couldn't start speaking normally - his sentences came out short and ragged no matter how much he tried. That's what one gets for living without another human being to verbally talk to for three years, and having only salamanders to keep him company, who did nothing but blow bubbles.

Jane nodded affirmatively, and John realized that's his cue to ask a question.

"How and what do you know about Sburb?"

Jane started talking again, being the head of this negotiation. "Not much: we found it here, in the house, it emitted a sound of drums and attracted us. And I accidently activated it, and then you appeared of a light sphere".

Of course! Of course they played it, it was so obvious now. For some reason he thought the most plausible way they could get out was for some scientist to investigate the game; he never thought anyone would be brave enough to play it.

He remembered the rhyme that has sent him there, which was not a difficult task - the words were burnt into his brain, stigmatized with hot iron on the insides of his eyelids - he could never forget.

"Which one of you rolled an eight?"

"It was me", Jane said. "How did you know?"

John felt a wave of the deepest affection for the girl overcoming him, he barely resisted flinging himself and hugging the hell out of her, but he also realized it would be crossing the boundaries and she would probably punch him. So instead he answered her question:

"When I played the game with my friends it gave me one condition. For me to leave it someone must get an eight when playing - and you did! Thank you, Jane. Thank you so much". John smiled at her hoping she understood what a big deal it was, to be finally free from the planet of darkness.

"My turn to ask a question again, right?" He asked. "How do you know my name?"

This time the one who responded was Jake. "We saw it in an old newspaper, there was an article about your death- I mean disappearance, but they presumed you were dead. There was a picture too, of you and three other children".

John nodded. Of course they came to a conclusion that they were dead; he thought about how the world would react to their unexplainable absence, and realized that they would think they are either dead or on the run. He spent months and months thinking about how devastated his father would be, how he would search everywhere for him but wouldn't be able to find, how he would think his son was angry at him for some reason so he decided to run away... Three years later might be too late to make amends, but he still needed to find his dad and explain himself. Which meant he needed to wrap up this question-answer section.

"They didn't happen to come out, did they? The other three kids. Jade, Dave and Rose".

He knew it was an empty question - of course they were not freed, he knew their conditions were even vaguer than his, and didn't consist any indication that a number eight is needed to leave.

Jake confirmed his suspicions. "No, we didn't see anyone else".

"I see. Do you want to know anything else? Because I'd rather spent this time on finding my dad. I need to tell him what happened".

"Yes", Roxy blurted out. "How old are you?"

"Sixteen".

"Impossible!" She exclaimed. "You should be like sixty!"

"Fifty-seven, to be exact", Dirk corrected her.

"Yeah-yeah, he gets the idea", Roxy stared at him inquiringly. "Did Sburb give you a pill of immortality or something?"

John's confusion deepened. "What do you mean? I've spent three years in the game. And now I am sixteen, a logical string of events".

Jane's eyes were suddenly filled with pity. "Oh dear... You disappeared in 1980. It is 2024 now".

To say John was struck was like saying nothing. He heard himself asking dumbly "The future?", but his thoughts were already rushing ahead. So not only the game made him suffer and survive on an unknown planet, it also decided it would be incredibly funny to slow time down for him. He looked around again, and everything suddenly clicked into places. The room he was in didn't just look uninhabitable, it looked downright abandoned. Desolated.

He thought about all the people he knew - Mrs.Lalonde, Rose's mother, has moved away from the house. Rose's nice and kind grandmother is dead. Dave's energetic twenty-six-year-old brother is in retirement community. And his father...

The four kids were looking at him sympathetically, giving him time to process this new information.

"Have you... Um... Ever heard about Joel Egbert?"

Everyone looked at Roxy questioningly - she shook her head.

"Hmm, no, sorry. But... I remember seeing this name in a newspaper. He is your father, isn't he?"

"Yes... What about 'Trickster Factory'? His joke shop?"

She frowned deeply, trying to remember, the turning wheels of her brain almost visible.

"Yes! I think I actually heard about it, and not too long ago!"

The corners of John's lips tugged up involuntary. His father is alive and well and still running the business, and even if forty years have passed, it's not too late to explain him everything!... But as soon as his hopes were lifted up they came crashing down when he saw Roxy's face taking on mournful expression when she recollected the rest of the story.

"What... What's wrong?"

"Sorry", she said, not looking him in the eyes. "I heard 'Trickster Factory' was closed after the owner died".

Jane gasped softly.

John's heart dropped into pits of nothingness.

It is too late to make amends, after all.

Of course, he could choose not to believe Roxy, she could easily be wrong. It is impossible to know everything, she has probably confused his father's shop with somebody else's. Even though this shop was one of a kind and everyone was talking about it - this is the future, they must have tons of joke shops with similar names...

But this is all his fault.

He played the stupid game and let his father die.

Why did he thought it was a good idea to roll the dice, the game screamed trouble from the very start. Everything that could possibly go wrong has gone wrong. Why did he return here? Maybe it was better to stay on the Land of Wind and Shade, not knowing anything? Ignorance is bliss.

But at the same time... He has to admit that a thought of his father being dead _has_ crossed his mind while being on LOWAS for three years; it was one of the worst-case scenarios he created when lying awake at night and looking at the fireflies in the dark clouds, they substituted stars here; he dreamt of being home and imagined what it would be like to come back, his dreams were usually happy but sometimes he couldn't stop himself from creating horrible, gory imagery of everyone being gone forever, of being late.

But even if he was late, a reason to be back still existed, of course: Jade, Rose and Dave are still inside the game. And now he has a chance to help them.

He was searching for words to say to fill up a gaping hole that has been opened by the revelation, but couldn't find any.

The others were silent too, perhaps allowing him to take time to come into senses.

"Say, John, I was wondering... Why is your hood so long?", Roxy asked suddenly. "Are you overcompensating or something?"

Jane shushed her quickly, and John was startled by the happy-go-lucky tone of the question after a topic this sensitive was brought up; but the look she gave him was one of sympathy, so he thought maybe she sensed the void inside of him and wanted to make him feel better by asking silly questions.

He sighed, falling out of the stupor.

"The game gave me these clothes, actually. When I appeared on that planet I thought I was a goner. But then I found this building that was... like a copy of my house. But a simplified copy. With only the essentials, like a bed and food, and yes, these blue pajamas. I was worried when I didn't find any more clothes, but what a surprise. These are indestructible. And they don't get dirty!"

Something was bugging him, but he couldn't pinpoint what it was exactly - not something about his father, more like a memory or an urgent thought he forgot about. But he discarded the feeling as an inadequate reaction to finally appearing back in the human world.

"Oh yes, it was so considerate of this horrible game to give you something to wear", Jane's voice was soaked in sarcasm.

"No, I actually thanked the game for these pajamas, they are pretty awesome. And in handy too. I fell into oil once on the Land of Wind and Shade and I thought I'd spend several days trying to clean in out, but see - they are completely untouched".

The kids looked unimpressed and John thought that maybe they didn't get it, they had to be there to understand what it is like to worry that a basic need like clean clothing could be taken away from you.

"Will you tell us the whole story of your adventures?" Roxy asked, her pink eyes, that reminded him of Rose, sparkling with enthusiasm. Oh, John missed the sight of a human face that is not his own so much.

"Maybe next time", he answered. He was not really in the mood for telling stories.

"Sorry to interrupt you", Jane said, "But could we turn the lights on? I don't feel comfortable sitting in darkness".

Roxy shot her an apologetic smile. "Sorry, no electricity here. Nobody is paying for this house, obviously, so... But I'm sure there are some emergency candles in the kitchen, do you want me to get them for you?"

Jane stood up. "It's fine, thank you, Roxy. I feel like I need to stretch for a bit anyway".

She walked out of the room, which left John with Roxy and two boys, all of them still sitting on the floor. By that time Dirk has just finished ripping off all the pillows from the couch to stash behind Jake and himself.

"What was the rhyme that brought me back?" John asked.

Jake leaned on the pillows, furrowing and recollecting his memories. "I think it sounded like... You saved a man from being dead, now give him time to catch a breath..."

"...But there is no unpunished deed, to hide or fight, that's what you'll need", Dirk finished, and Roxy said: "Why do you ask, how is it important?"

John stared at them in disbelief: how could they be so careless? "The rhymes are  _crucially_  important, they are the game's way of giving us hints! About what is going to happen next!"

"Alright, Enigma Machine, explain what does this verse mean then", Dirk crossed his arms.

This put John on the spot, because actually he had no idea what the rhyme meant.

"Obviously, the first two lines were about saving me. For that I thank you again", he began thinking aloud. "The last ones warn about something coming. Something you will have to run from, or fight".

"Like what?" Roxy tilted her head quizzingly.

"If this something came with me it must mean something from my planet", he said. However his planet was not a very inhabited place, it only had salamanders and... Oh crap.

The realization hit him like an avalanche. Now he knew what was the thought bugging him, he was being stupid and ignorant again; it was the faintest sound only the ears of a person prepared to be attacked every single second could distinct - the soft, barely noticeable footsteps of little creatures.

At the same time, Jane scream echoed through the house.

Roxy jumped on her feet instantly. "Jane!!", she yelled. "What's wrong?!"

"There are weird black things, I don't know where they came from!!" her voice sound panicked.

Of course. The underlings came here with him too.

John wasted no time and sprung into action immediately.

He reached the staircase in no time, leaping five feet at a time, and saw an imp climbing up the stairs - a deviously looking little creature, its pearly white eyes and teeth shone brightly in contrast with pitch-black skin. John didn't even bother hitting it with a hammer, he simply jumped at it, holding onto the railing with one hand, and sent the imp flying into the air with a powerful kick; just as it was about to collide with the floor John landed on it and crashed it with all his weight, causing black oily substance to spill all over the floor. But John didn't have time to care about the oil - he was sick of looking at it anyway - and turned abruptly to head to another staircase, passing two imps on his way there, hitting their heads with sniper precision. He overheard stumbling and quiet curses behind his back and knew someone has slipped on the oil, but turning back meant wasting time and he had a girl to save. The imps might look harmless enough because of their size, and it's true they are not able to  _kill_  per se, but their sharp teeth leave wounds that take months to heal, John knew it first-hand. He burst through the opened kitchen door and saw Jane with her back pressed to the wall in a space where a refrigerator once stood, a drawer with the cutlery was opened and a couple of candles were lying nearby. She was surrounded by nearly thirty imps who were reaching their claws out to grab her dress; she tried to kick them away from her, but she was also scared to bring her legs near them. John smashed the heads of the closest imps and shouted at Jane:

"Try to hit them on the heads, it's their weak spot!"

"With what?!" she cried desperately.

"Anything!"

Jane moved her eyes around anxiously, looking for something to use as a weapon, but an empty kitchen had nothing to offer, except maybe the candles, however Jane understood they wouldn't be much help. But when one imp actually grabbed her leg with its sticky cold claws she screamed in disgust and grasped a random object her hand was nearest to and plunged it into the imp. It wailed in agony and dropped on its back, Jane raised the hand that was holding a silver fork that was now dripping with black oil and stepped to the next imp quickly, thrusting the fork into it with all the force she could master. Another imp stuck its claws into her leg, Jane winced in pain and turned to kill it too, but John outran her and smacked it with his bright hammer. Jane nearly lost balance, but John was quick to hold her by left elbow.

"Not bad for your first strife", he said, smiling. "A fork was a nice touch".

She looked up and saw her friends standing in the doorway, all out of breath.

"Holy smokes, it was amazing! And fast, we just got here and you have already outed so many of these black... things!" Jake exclaimed with a happiness of a child on Christmas, and Dirk looked at the streams of black curiously.

Roxy ran to Jane instantly and took her by the other elbow. "Oh my god, Janey, you are bleeding! Are you alright?"

Jane looked at her knee that now had three long, but luckily not deep, cuts.

"I am fine, it just stings a bit. What was that, John?"

"The underlings, I used to battle a ton of them when I was on LOWAS", John answered.

"How many is a ton?" Dirk asked, thinking he was exaggerating.

"I mean literally a ton, maybe more. Especially when I first arrived there and knew nothing about their habits or where to hide. They were everywhere, stole my food, bugged me at night... I had to learn how to defend myself".

Dirk now looked at him with a lot more respect than any time before.

"Alright, two questions: first of all, what exactly are they and second of all, why are they here?" Jake touched the imp's carcass with a tip of his boot.

"And why didn't we see them appearing?" Dirk added.

"This is the nature of the underlings", John explained, "There is no rhyme or reason to their appearing. It is completely random. They are the creatures of darkness this game gave us to battle, and if you say the riddle told you to hide or fight, it means they are also obstacles for you - for us - to overcome. What I'm trying to say is that every time you roll the dice Sburb will do something, it can suck you in or give you a monster to fight. You should always be on guard and that is why the rhymes are very important - they will tell you what to expect". John inhaled heavily, not being used to giving long speeches.

After a moment of silence Jake voiced a mutual thought: "What kind of a friggin board game is it?"

"No regular one, obviously. Even though we've spent three years in it, we couldn't figure out its origins. But there are several things we did find out, like that it promises a reward in the end. Also if a random person touches the dice and drops it, even without an intention of making a move, they automatically become a player. But if one of the players does that and it's not their turn - nothing happens. And also it says everything will go back to normal once we finish it".

"Do you mean that imps are going to disappear? And Jane's cuts too?" Dirk asked.

"Possibly. I don't know. I mean did you read the instructions? The exciting consequences of the game will vanish only when a player has reached Sburb and called out its name". When he noticed confused looks on everyone's faces he pressed a hand to his face, sighing gravely. "How could you even start playing the game without reading the rules first?"

"Well excuse me, nobody warned us that this game is going to open a fucking portal and drag an ancient man from past as well as those demon-possessed goblins", Dirk responded. "Nobody ever reads board game rules, it's a waste of time, they just add unnecessary restrictions".

"Oh god, you sound just like Dave! We didn't pay attention to the rules too, and look where it got us!"

"Okay, okay", Jane struck into the conversation. "It is more important to discuss what we are going to do now".

This was an easy decision for John. "To continue playing. This is our only chance of saving my friends. And once we finish... We will see what happens".

Jane nodded seriously. "Does everyone agree?" she asked her friends.

"Of course! We are not leaving you", Roxy was the first to answer.

Dirk shrugged. "Being in mortal peril is exactly what I pictured my vacation to be like". ("This means yes", Jake explained to John quietly).

And then Jake drew the concluding line: "We are doing it!"

"Alright, now that we all agreed to stick together we need to establish some sort of a plan", John pressed his lips together, thinking. "I say we should destroy as many underlings as we can before making the next move in the game".

"And why is that?" Roxy asked.

“We know how to fight them and know who they are – up to a point – but the civilians don’t”, John said. “We need to destroy them before they destroy them. By them I mean the underlings. I mean we should destroy the underlings, not people. Crap, you know what I mean”.

They nodded eagerly.

Dirk went to the window and glanced at the streets. "I don't see anything. How many imps do you think are roaming the town?"

John shook his head. "Imps are not the ones you should worry about. There are things far worse, like basilisks, ogres and liches, and don't get me started on lich queens and giclopses. They are giant and deadly, I have seen them fighting each other, they could snap a human body in half... Anyway, I propose we go out there to fight for a while, clean the streets and then I roll the dice again”.

Roxy raised her hand. “Objection! We  _all_  should roll the dice”.

John stared at her in confusion. Was she really this eager to die? “Haven’t you seen how horrible this game is? Save yourself, if you won’t participate at least you won’t be affected”.

“Yes”, Roxy answered patiently, “But also consider this: you roll the dice and none of your friends come out, yet their turn is next. And we are stuck forever with waiting for a miracle and nobody can play. If we become players too it will give us more chances to extract your friends from the game”.

She looked around for support.

“I must say I agree with Roxy on this”, Dirk said and Roxy smiled at him thankfully.

John debated the thought for some time and finally realized that she was right and he had to take the risk.

“Okay then. What we need now is...”

“...weapons and communication”, Roxy finished.

“Right”, John said, slightly surprised, but pleased about how good she was dealing with the situation. Perhaps she had an experience of being in a battle?

“I will take a sword”, Dirk said without hesitation and disappeared in the doorway.

“This fork worked fine for me, but I will need something else too”, Jane added.

Roxy turned to Jake and poked him playfully: “You still like to pretend you are Lara Croft and can hold a gun like a badass?”

“Indeed I do”, he said, although he didn’t sound so sure.

“Perfect, I suggest we go marauding their butts. There is a hunting store nearby, let’s go check it out”.

“Fine by me", Jake didn't feel thrilled, especially by the word  _marauding_ , so he specified: "But only if we tell them we are not bandits, we want the firearms to save the town”.

“Sure hon, we’ll do that”, Roxy cooed and pinched his cheek.

“What about communication?” Jane asked. “Everybody has got their phones on them?”

John blinked. He didn't understand what they meant, they didn't have any visible telephones  _on them_.

“Absolutely!” Roxy patted the pocket of her dark grey pants.

“Sure thing”, Jake said and peered out of the doorway to shout loudly so that his voice could be heard all throughout the house: “Dirk, you’ve got your phone??”

“I always do, no need to shout”, Dirk said, entering the kitchen and moving Jake out of his way, but leaving a hand on his shoulder; there was a katana in his other hand which apparently he has cleaned from dust. Roxy made some approving noises when she saw it.

Jane wanted to sum up the results of their conversation: "So the three of us will go to the store", she looked at John and Dirk, "And you two..."

"We are going to slay some underlings", John finished her thought.

"Are you sure it is wise to split up?" Dirk asked nobody in particular, his fingers were tugging the collar of Jake's shirt absent-mindedly.

"We will be fine, we can run fast", Roxy reassured him with a smile. "Oh, and John... You don't have a cellphone, do you? We'll need to find you one".

"A what?"

"A mobile phone", Jane corrected so that John would understand.

"Ah! No, certainly not", John couldn't resist adding another question, curiosity was burning him: "Does everybody in the future have their own mobile phones?"

"Yes, and personal computers too", Dirk answered. "As well as time machines, flying cars, power-lacing shoes and hoverboards. Also Jaws 19 came out and everyone is terrified and offers to pay money to stop filming the sequels".

John just stared at him in disarray, not understanding a word.

"Oh, and you also might want to wear a spiky metal helmet, if today's youth sees you without one they will beat you up, and not even a fancy hammer will save you".

"Wha-"

Jake nudged Dirk, trying hard not to laugh out loud. "Dirk, Back To The Future II came out in 1989, he doesn't get the joke".

He let out a fake sad sigh. "What a pity, I'll go sit in a shame corner of failed movie jokes then".

Jane rolled her eyes. "Don't pay attention to them", she said sternly. "We do have personal computers, and hoverboards are something the richies can afford, but the rest is their usual goofoff". (It was followed by Jake's comment of "Don't ruin the illusion, Jane!")

John gladly accepted a life buoy of sanity she offered and said: "It is amazing, I've always believed the future will be great. I just never thought I'll live long enough to see it".

Roxy smacked herself in the forehead suddenly, remembering something. "Argh, how could I forget! I have a projection glass  _as well as_  a cellphone, I can give one to John!"

She pulled out something that looked like a smooth, shiny black brick and dropped it into John's open palms.

Jane looked at her friend apprehensively - Roxy was so generous and kind to give away her new iPhone 612 (or was it 6.1.2? Jane didn't keep track of all the names of new models Apple released). She was also generous enough to instruct John on how to use it, even though he didn't have much luck understanding and kept messing up and accidently clicking wrong applications and being distracted by all the games Roxy had. In the end she reduced her teaching to simply showing him how to make calls and left him alone in his fascination with futuristic device.

She then pinned something that looked like a white hair clip over her ear and said "Activate", to which a soft female voice replied: "User tipsyGnostalgic: accepted" and it unfolded into a thin white line that covered her eyebrow and a small transparent screen that glowed green-ish appeared over the eye. John gaped looking at tiny words appearing and disappearing on its surface: the technology has certainly evolved drastically.

When everyone was ready, both physically and mentally, and John hid the game in the couch pillows saying they should keep it safe; when Jake asked why wouldn't they simply carry it around, he replied that it would be an impeding load. They all went to the front entrance and Dirk peeked through the crack of the slightly opened doors.

"The coast is clear", he informed. Perhaps the underlings have found something more interesting on the other streets of the town, the ones that had bigger population density.

"Alright, let's go then", John said and beckoned the girls and Jake to follow them, they sneaked out carefully, looking around, with John leading the procession. When they reached an awfully quiet main street, with no cars or pedestrians visible, John turned to the group to give them last directions.

"Remember, they don't react to sounds as much as to movement, so don't run unless you have to. If you encounter a basilisk or an ogre - aim for the eyes. We all will meet here again in, say, forty-five minutes".

"Be safe, okay? Don't engage in fights you can avoid until you are properly weaponized", Dirk added.

"Gotcha", Roxy gave him thumbs up and they split up: Dirk and John went on the left deeper into the suburbs, and Jane, Jake and Roxy went to the right towards the centre.

As they were walking down the streets, noticing occasional cars sprinting past them, Jake really hoped they won't end up regretting going by themselves. He felt naked and unsafe without John's hammer or Dirk's katana to smite the underlings that were wandering around this very moment. But on the other hand Roxy said that the shop they were looking for is only four blocks away, so they are going to reach it soon; and what could happen in twenty minutes?

Quite a lot, as it turns out.

It started with hearing people screaming in the distance, and despite all the warnings and promises they swerved from the course and went towards the source of sounds, hiding carefully behind the buildings. People were running away from something, not noticing the three teenagers, there was a sound of loud thumps and a screeching of a car crashing into something - and then they saw it.

The creature was pure black, with shining white eyes and a purple tongue sticking out of its mouth; it was as tall as a two-storeyed building and impossibly long - they couldn't see the end of its tail because it was hidden behind the corner of the next crossroads. It had six legs, the car has just crashed into one of them, perhaps the driver thought it would knock the creature off, but it simply lifted its hurt foot and stomped so hard the ground shook and roared. It turned its wide face full of teeth to the car and opened its mouth, so big that the car could easy fit in there.

They saw the driver managing to climb out in time and running to the nearest door, banging and begging desperately to let them in, but the owners of the house were just as terrified and didn't dare to open the door. The driver's screams were buried in a cacophony of gritting metal when the creature effortlessly bit the car and started chewing slowly.

Someone on the street yelled at the driver to run for his life and so he did, but the creature was quick to react - it snatched the man and his screams were cut by the jaws closing around the middle of his body. Jake thought he could hear crunching and quickly averted his gaze, feeling guilty because he was simply standing here, doing nothing.

"John, there is a giant snake monster, how do we fight it?" Jane asked in hushed whisper. Jake was so consumed by the scene unfolding before his eyes that he didn't even noticed she dialed the number. He didn't hear what John said, but apparently he didn't want them to do anything, because Jane answered:

"But it has just killed a person, we can't..."

"Okay, but..."

"Alright".

Jane sighed, put the phone away and tugged her friends' sleeves to urge them to continue moving.

"It was a basilisk. We are useless until we have something to fight with", she said. They passed the garden they have been into earlier that day; even though it was several hours ago it felt like forever. Jake could swear he saw a group of imps climbing up the garden's fountain. Some shadows moved over them quickly, helooked up in the sky and saw more black basilisks flying by, these were a lot smaller but had wings and the same menacing look.

"And what is worse", Jane continued, "Is that I am the most useless of us all".

"What, no!" Roxy hurried to support her. "You are the smartest person I know, with the best leadership qualities, the most..."

"Thank you, Roxy", she interrupted her and smiled softly, "But I actually meant it in a 'knowing how to wield a weapon' sense of things. Even if I get a gun from the shop you are taking us to, I won't be able to shoot. To be honest, I think even with this fork I am going to have more chances of winning than..."

She stopped abruptly.

"Something's wrong?" Jake questioned.

"The fork sculpture!" Jane said, surprised her brain even allowed her to have such an idea.

"The what?"

"Oh my god, you are a genius!" Roxy exclaimed, squeezing her shoulders. "Let's go!"

"No", Jane answered. "You go to the shop, we'll meet here in a few moments", she said and turned around to head to the garden entrance, not allowing her friend to protest.

"Okay", Jake said. "What has just happened?"

"Do you remember the fork and strawberry sculpture in the garden?" They renewed their pace.

"Vaguely".

"Jane wants to take the fork! Isn't it great?"

"Yes, it is", he replied, but in reality he had hard time imagining Jane holding a giant fork the size of a human body. She could be crashed by its weight, she has never displayed the signs of being physically strong.

The distant screams were wafted to their ears, it made Jake feel like he was sick when he remembered what happened to the driver.

"Just one more block to walk", Roxy said. "See the building there?"

She was pointing at a small store at the end of the street, painted in colours of army uniform. Two winged basilisks flied over it.

Jake had to quicken up the pace to keep up with her. "Do you really think they are going to sell us firearms? We are underage, even in the war-like situation like this they could simply say 'Go home, you little helpless squeakers'".

Roxy shrugged. "That's what adults always say. We'll just have to convince them".

She sprinted away to be the first one to bust through the open door with the most determined look on her face, but stopped suddenly with her foot hovering over the threshold.

"Okay Jake", she said, voice constrained, "I think this guy will have no problem with us having some guns".

When Jake caught up with her he saw the floor covered in splashes of red and debris from the hole in the wall where the backdoor should be. There was a body of the shop owner lying behind the counter, they could only see his legs in torn jeans decorated with dark wet stains. Now he  _really_  felt sick.

"Oh good lord", he forced himself to speak as he had to turn away again, moving to look at the various guns displayed on the wall. Roxy stepped closer to the body.

"Poor mister Barton", her voice quavered. "You were a good man. I'm sorry we can't give you a proper goodbye".

Jake took two pistols that resembled the model he used at home the most and now was looking for ammunition, trying to ignore the blood he saw out of the corner of his eye.

"You knew him?" he asked.

"Yes", Roxy took a rifle from its prop. "I used to come here and look at the guns and ask him to let me try one, and he kept saying it was illegal that I should get out of here before he calls the police... Good times".

She sighed. Jake felt sad for the man too, but it was more like a remote sadness, like he has just seen the news about someone being killed somewhere. He didn't know him like Roxy did - he didn't know him at all - and Jake thought that this whole ordeal will be a lot harder for her than for any of them, with her home town suffering.

"I have to warn you about something", he said, putting magazines with bullets into the pockets of his shorts. "I might not be as good with the firearms as I said I was. The last time I shot something was a year ago, when I was hunting with Granny".

She seemed unaffected. "You are not alone then. Last time I held a rifle properly was at a shooting gallery at a fare under strict supervision. You can imagine how different it was".

Jake's phone peeped signifying a new message; it was from Dirk and said  _"How are things?"_

 _"Got firearms, found a dead man, coming back soon"_ , he typed in reply and hit send. He then took a belt with two pistol holsters and multiple pockets to store ammunition (it became rather heavy after being stuffed with extra bullets) and snapped it shut on the belt loops.

"Ready? C'mon, let's go already, I'm worried sick about Jane", Roxy said, now sporting a rifle of her own, as well as two cartridge belts. "Argh, how could I be so dumb and let her go in her own!"

"Don't worry, she is going to be fine", Jake was happy to finally leave the shop and head back to the garden. "Jane is the sensible one, she wouldn't run off recklessly if she didn't know what she was doing".

"I know, but still, I can't help it. But you probably understand, I mean, don't you worry about Dirk?"

"He is Dirk. You know how he is, he doesn't let me worry about him".

Roxy raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Really. So you don't worry about him fighting against some kind of a basilisk that chewed a car like it was grandma's pudding right now?"

Instead of answering Jake tested one of the pistols by firing at the lone imp he spotted nearby. It was an easy target that exploded into a splash of black oily fluid.

"I do! But he will be alright, he always is. Mister one hundred percent of pure alrightness", he finally said.

"Wow, are you listening to yourself? No wonder Dirk said you didn't care about him".

Now that was truly unexpected. He stopped and turned fully to look at her.

"Hold your horses, Rox, you two were gossiping about me? And he said that..."

"Oops, I shouldn't have said anything!" Roxy interrupted loudly. She took the rifle she was holding behind her back off the shoulder strap and clicked the safety lock.

"What else did he say?" Jake didn't exactly care that they were discussing him behind his back, he was a lot more worried about why the hell Dirk had these completely unjustified ideas.

"Do you think I can shoot that basilisk from here?" she pointed up in the sky, but Jake didn't want to focus on any underlings right now.

"Roxy-"

He was interrupted yet again by the cracking bang coming out of Roxy's rifle - she aimed at the small figure soaring up high, but missed. Unfortunately (but predictably) the basilisk spotted them and dived towards them with unbelievable speed.

"Crap", Roxy muttered, dropping on one knee to steady the rifle. She shot again, but this time the creature spun in the air and dodged it.

It was fifteen feet away when Jake drew both of his pistols and fired the whole magazine of bullets into it; combined with shots from Roxy's rifle their attack was strong enough to annihilate it. They had to jump sideways in order not to be knocked down by the creature that crashed right into the spot they were standing on a second ago. This was their first chance to look at it this close: the creature's body was the size of a human, it had a long tail and leathern wings reminiscent of those of a bat. They noticed that only some of their bullets hit their mark because of their messy shooting.

"We really should use the bullets sparingly", Roxy said, remorseful. "Sorry for shooting first, we were told not to attract needless attention, but I did so anyway".

"It's okay, it wasn't your fault", Jake replied quickly. "So about Dirk..."

"Ask him yourself, would you? I won't be your owl, they tend to mix the information up", she winked.

"Fine", he groaned. If Roxy wanted to keep a secret that meant she would do it no matter what.

They entered the sculpture garden, now deserted; the only sounds they could hear probably belonged to the underlings. Jake looked at the fountain he saw earlier and noticed that there were only two imps left, sitting in the water; he wasted no time in shooting both of them simultaneously from both pistols, rewarded with Roxy's "Nice!". The water in the fountain turned black, like someone has spilled ink in it. He wondered what the substance coming out from imps was after all - it looked like oil at first, but now he thought it was more like rich black paint. That's what he called it in his head - he didn't want to think of the liquid as the creatures' blood.

They walked by a little lake and saw a plastic strawberry lying on the ground; fork, and Jane too, were nowhere to find.

Roxy activated the glass again and began dictating the message fast, Jake pulled his phone out too. He unlocked it, but before he could even click the contacts icon someone snatched it out of his hands, leaving red claw marks deep in his skin; this someone turned out to be another winged basilisk that dived at him from a tree it was sitting on and now was flying away, flapping its wings like an enormous bat.

Because he tarried while trying to pull the pistols out of the holsters, he couldn't aim well and his two shots went in vain.

"Roxy, it got my phone!" he hastened his friend to help him out. She shouldered arms too, but her eye was still covered with glass having letters and program windows flashing on it, so she couldn't aim well and missed with the first shot. She aimed again but hesitated.

"Sorry, I think it will be better to save the bullets for something more important", she said.

"My phone was important", Jake protested weakly, but he knew she was right. He even imagined he could hear nasty laughter from the direction of the basilisk, although he doubted these creatures could laugh.

Three little boys ran past them so fast like they were on the Olympics, their faces were shining with tears.

"I think it was a clear sign of which way we should go", Jake offered and Roxy agreed.

They walked in the direction boys were running from, it was nearly the end of the garden, that's why the trees and bushes were growing thicker and there was a pile of large stones the sculptures were made out of apparently.

They heard some commotion going on not far away, the trees were blocking the view, but as soon as Jake reached out to move the branches apart he had to jerk his hand away because of the sudden loud cracking noise behind their backs.

Jake turned around and gulped when he saw a giant basilisk towering over them, licking its lips. It looked even worse up close; odd number of horns was growing at the top of its head, it had a wide mouth with two rows of perfectly sharp teeth with splinters of metal and something else stuck in them, the tongue, constantly hanging out, made it look like it was jeering at them.

"Shit", Roxy said simply.

There was a second-long pause before the creature lashed out at them, Roxy cocked the rifle and Jake did the same, they ran in different directions and fired their weapons; the shots hit their marks and black liquid started dripping, but the basilisk seemed unaffected. It looked between the two and chose Roxy as its next target, closing up on her, Jake used its distraction as a chance to get closer and make some holes into the creature's head; he then remembered what John said and the next shots were fired at its eye.

Roxy seemed to understand what he was trying to do, because she fired into the creature's other eye that spewed even more oily blackness; they held their breath and waited for the now blinded basilisk to maybe feel appalled and back away cowardly, but instead it just became enraged, roared in pain and attacked Roxy with a clear intention to tear her into pieces. Jake hurried to push her away, but the basilisk was faster and in a millisecond its teeth snapped shut exactly on the place her head was - she stepped back to avoid them but couldn't get too far away because of the stones her back bumped into; she pushed the rifle forward reflectively for protection and the rifle's barrel got stuck in the gap between the creature's teeth. She tried to pull it out but failed; the basilisk lifted its head and turned around searching for a new target, Roxy refused to let go of the rifle an now she was hanging seven feet above the ground, holding the stock tightly.

"What are you doing, just jump down!" Jake shouted and fired into the basilisk's head again hoping it somehow will force it to drop the rifle.

"No, I can still shoot, I just need to reach the trigger..." She tried to pull up, but because the creature's head was constantly moving her hands kept slipping.

"Roxy! Jake!" Another voice suddenly popped up, and Jake turned around to see Jane carrying a white fork atilt. Jake was surprised to see she was holding it effortlessly, considering it was as tall as her. Basilisk tried to snap its teeth again in the meantime, but Roxy prevented it by kicking it hardly.

"Janey, you came to save us!" She said happily from up above.

"I heard you and arrived as fast as I can!" Jane observed the scene, quickly thinking of a plan. "We need to attack all at once. Jake, aim for its neck. I will assault from above. When I say "go", we all put our weapons to good use. Ready?"

Roxy swung her body to put one leg at the bottom of the creature's open mouth to support herself, which allowed her to clasp the magazine and hover her finger above the trigger. "Ready when you are!"

Jake wanted to ask Jane how is she going to climb up, but she preceded his words with her actions - she stuck a fork into the basilisk's side, which was writhing disorderly now, used it as a footboard to step on, and when she jumped upwards she pulled the fork out again. Well, it seems Jake was going to learn a lot of valuable lessons today, lesson number one being: never underestimate Jane Crocker.

"GO!!" Jane screamed, and Jake darted towards the basilisk, swooping under its head and releasing the bullets into its neck and evading the streams of black falling down on him; at the same time Jane plunged the fork, driving two-feet-long tines deeply into its flesh; and Roxy pulled the rifle's trigger and fired the bullets from inside of its mouth, they pierced its head and came out with an explosion of black fluid.

When Roxy noticed that the creature started staggering, she let go of the rifle to jump down - she couldn't keep balance and fell down on her rump anyway, but it was better than being crashed by the basilisk's giant body that dropped down, unmoving. Jake tore the rifle out its teeth, which was not an easy task. The barrel was covered in dents and scratches now.

Jane held herself in place during the fall by hugging the fork firmly, and now she slid down basilisk's smooth side and landed on her feet gracefully.

Everyone was panting, and Jake noticed his hands were shaking from all the tension and adrenaline; he looked at the girls - their faces were shining red and hair was sticking out in odd angles, and he understood that he didn't look any better.

"This was AMAZING!" Roxy sounded thrilled, and Jake agreed with her - he felt like he has just starred in an action blockbuster. "The way you handled that fork... just dope!"

"You two weren't so bad yourself", Jane replied, fixing her hair.

"Would it be too malapropos of me to say that I am glad we were attacked?" Jake asked.

"Yes, it was terrific, if you take away the part where we were about to be eaten", Jane said with a faint smile playing on her lips.

Roxy laughed and hugged them both. "But we are alive and on the winning side, so you know what it means? That we are more badass then everyone thinks! Hah, can't wait to see Dirk's and John's faces when we tell them we took it down by ourselves!"

She hooked the rifle to the strap on her shoulder again and put it behind her back.

"I see your trip to the store was beneficial, that's a nice gun you got", Jane said, looking at it approvingly.

Roxy patted it and winked. "Was it supposed to be a pick-up line? Because if yes - it worked! I'm ready to be asked out on a date".

But Jane just laughed like she usually did when she thought Roxy was joking.

"I think we should head out to meet the boys", she answered instead.

"Yeah, we should", Roxy agreed, sounding a tad down at heart, and they went towards the garden entrance to get on the road again. The initial adrenaline pump was dying out and now they started to feel tired, even though they understood that they probably won't be able to allow themselves to rest - not until this ordeal is over, at least.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is 2024 I'm writing about, Back To The Future jokes are obligatory.  
> Also, poor John, he haven't seen Ghostbusters or Con Air yet.
> 
> The chapter summary is a line from "Go Get Your Gun" by Dear Hunter. Fitting, don't you agree?
> 
> And finally, you may be wondering why the hell do I put so many drawings in this. That's because originally it was supposed to be a comic, which means I have too many images it my head that I need to get out.


	4. The Other Side

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dirk's and John's side of the trip, with less action and more talking.

John wondered what an onlooker would think if they saw them right now – two boys, the tall blonde one holding a bared katana in his hand, swinging it casually like it was a walking stick, and the shorter one in bright blue clothes with the longest hood the world has ever seen dragging behind him, which was surprisingly clean despite it. Yes, people would think they are in some kind of a weird two-man costume parade, John thought.

The so-called main street the Lalondes’ residence was on didn’t change that much since John saw it last time; the house was still the only prominent building on it. Perhaps, even though it was abandoned, the people of Topeton were still intimidated by the name Lalonde and their ambitions of building and owning the biggest organization of high technology in the country, and didn’t want to disrupt the Lalondes’ neighbourhood by living there. However, when they turned left and entered another street this is where the changes have become visible: the houses here were set densely, close to each other, each one have a little garden behind it, all grown with flowers. The walls and fences were coloured in brighter, cleaner colours than John remembered, but the houses still looked rather poor. He imagined coming back to see the mansions looming over the people passing by, but instead he saw small living spaces the owners tried to make look cosy and presentable. But all in all John thought that at least the colourful paint made them seem happier - which made the contrast with silent eerie atmosphere of the street more prominent; it made him feel uncomfortable, like something is about to happen but he didn’t know what exactly.

Another thing that was added to discomfort was Dirk’s refusal to start a conversation. Actually it was even worse, because the feeling of being ready for an attack, when all senses are strained to the edge, was something he was used to; but walking next to another human being... Now that they finished talking about battle plans and strategies he found it difficult to find a small talk topic. That’s why he asked a first question that came to mind.

“So... how did four of you meet?” he asked.

“Same high school with Jake and Jane,” he replied. “Met on Pesterchum with Roxy.”

“Care to explain what meeting on Pesterchum means? But maybe use simple words, like you are telling something a person who came from the 1980s,” John was determined to make a conversation that lasted longer than two minutes. First of all, he was planning on fishing out as much information about the changes in Topeton as possible (he decided to move thoughts about how is going to live here now to an undetermined future); and second of all, he genuinely wanted to become friends with people who saved him.

“Alright, let’s imagine I am teaching a class to a bunch of first graders who don’t speak a leak of English. Pesterchum is an instant messaging system. You type the text on your computer, press the button and it appears on another person’s computer. Easy-peasy.”

“Wow! This sounds amazing! So you can write whoever you want this way?” John asked, wishing the circumstances would be different and he actually had time to enjoy the modern technology.

“Yep.”

“And you don’t even to see each other to talk face to face? That’s crazy!”

“That’s exactly what our parents say. Well, I guess it’s because you  _are_  our parents.”

John laughed at that loudly – if you leave out all the heartbreak, being randomly thrown into the future _is_ pretty funny.

At the corner of his eye he saw a person looking at them through the window, but when he turned to look at them properly they quickly hid behind the curtains.

“But to write someone you still need to know who you are writing to, right? So you knew Roxy before the Pesterchum thing?”

“Generally you need to, but not in our case,” Dirk paused, if thinking whether to tell the story or not. “There was a game of truth or dare going on, and I dared Jane to pick a random username in Pesterchum and start a conversation. Might seem like a choice too simple for a dare, but it was a big deal for her. So we watched her talking to an unknown pink-text user, laughed and forgot. A week passes and turns out they never stopped texting each other. And that is how we met our fourth friend; Roxy said it was a match made in the stars.”

“Ah, what a touching story! And actually this technology reminds me of a thing I had on LOWAS,” John said. “There was a huge screen I could type my messages in. That’s how I communed with my friends. Well, not directly, but it’s a long story.” He waved his hands around vaguely to convince Dirk of the length of the story.

“Do tell,” Dirk welcomed.

“Um, well, it may sound really weird...”

“Everything about you is weird.”

“...but I swear it’s true. When I arrived on LOWAS and found this screen – after a month I think – I started pushing the buttons and text appeared, it was like a typewriter, you know. And I found out there were people who could see me writing, so they answered me, and at first I thought they were from another country, or maybe just had a very twisted sense of humour. But they might actually be from another planet!” He noticed that his speech started streaming smoother and smoother with every word.

“Really,” he saw Dirk glancing at him under the cover of his shades and it was clear that he didn’t believe him.

“I told you it was weird. I don’t have any proof, but I just took their word for it,” it was a naive thing to do, he knew that and didn’t need Dirk’s raised eyebrows to question his lack of sanity.

“At this point I could believe anything too,” he replied.

John smiled at him widely, thanking for his acceptance, but was met with a blank expression.

“Anywaaay,” he continued, “I wrote them and they answered back, and then I found out that my friends discovered screen of the same kind, and could write them too! For some reason we couldn’t commune directly, we thought it was another one of Sburb’s obstacles. Or maybe it was the game’s mistake and we were not supposed to commune at all? It could be either way.”

“Could you describe what the device looked like?”

“Sure. It was big, grey and cubical, like a big grey cube... You know what, I’d better draw it,” he went off the sidewalk to some person’s garden, found a spot with soft soil and used the sharp end of a stick he found to draw a picture.

John certainly didn’t know it, but when Dirk looked at it he saw that it was clearly a computer, an outdated one - he would say a 2013-2014 model - but a computer nonetheless. Seeing this confirmed his suspicions and raised a lot of new questions: if the game found in 1980 contained a world with a device invented 30 years in the future, what time period did it come from? They have already witnessed how it could bend time; perhaps it is based on a time-travelling apparatus and could autonomously skip in time? If this is the case they should really keep a better eye on it to prevent it from disappearing. After all is said and done, he should also take it apart and examine the mechanisms in order to finally make a breakthrough in his own spacetime distortion engine he was working on for nine years – and stuck with little progress for the last three (and absolutely zero progress for the last month). At least he had decided on the device’s  final design: a red microwave. It was the most ridiculous appearance for a spacetime machine he could think of.

Dirk suddenly realized that John was standing next to him and drilling holes in him with his intense stare. Crap, he was lost in his own head again and didn't pay attention to him.

"So should we keep going?" John asked awkwardly.

Dirk nodded affirmatively and headed out on the street again, with John tagging behind.

"Um,” John started in attempt to initiate a conversation again. He was too much of a talker, for Dirk's taste, bringing up unnecessary topics. He reminded him of Jake a bit, but more annoying. And less hot.

"Do you know if the Alchemist's Aquarium is still working? It was my favourite place to go with my Dad when I was a kid.”

At first Dirk wanted to tell him that it was converted into a strip club named Fish in Fishnets or something else that would throw him off balance, but in the end set to cutting him some slack and telling the truth.

"I don't know what it is; it is our first day in this town.”

"Aaah, you are not from around here!" John's voice was a mixture of disappointment and wonder. "Where are you from?"

"Houston, Texas.”

"What brings you in Topeton?"

"We came to visit Roxy,” Dirk replied shortly, because brevity is the soul of wit. And he has a sufficient amount of wit, thank you very much.

"I knew there was something in her, I felt that she was my spiritmate! I really want to talk to her about the town later, she is such a nice girl,” John smiled. "Not that I think you and the others are not nice!" he then hurried to explain himself. "But there is something really familiar in her, like we have been friends for a long time."

He fell in silence for a while, putting pieces together with the help of his deduction skills.

"There's because she is related to Rose, right? Rose Lalonde. If she is the only native citizen among you and you were in the Lalondes' residence she must be related to them.”

"She is a cousin-niece of your Rose,” At least Dirk thought that was the correct term for their relationship. It was easy for him to admit that he wasn’t an expert on relatives’ names.

“This is so wonderful!” John smiled. “And also surreal. But niece is not that bad really, it could have been worse if Roxy was her granddaughter, for example- argh, what am I talking about, Rose was only thirteen!" He smacked his forehead.

“Speaking of relations,” Dirk transitioned from John’s ramblings smoothly. “Tell me about Dave.”

“He is my best bro, likes obscure music, draws obscure comics with humour no one understands, and... Wait a second, why did you say _‘speaking of relations’_ , Dave is not related to the girls, I know this for a fact!”

“I know this too. I meant I might be related to Dave.”

“Wow, really?” John examined him profoundly for a couple of seconds. “I can’t believe I didn’t pick up on that on my own! Because now I see, you really are alike, same pale complexion, same cocky attitude... And a desire to cover your face... But if you came from Texas, it means Dave’s family moved? After their son went missing, I suppose, it is an understandable action.”

And Dirk reckoned that is exactly what happened; after everything he read about in the old newspapers went down the Striders moved to the south, completely changing the surrounding and starting life anew, crossing out the woman who killed their younger son away, cutting the bond with Lalondes once and for all. But he still befriended Roxy, which was a great coincidence, the master of all coincidences. He also wondered what his life would be like if he lived in Topeton since birth.

“Dave is really cool, you know,” John said. “I bet when we rescue him you two are going to be the best of friends! Or second best, don’t take him away from me completely, haha,” he laughed again.  
   
On the next intersection they passed they saw two abandoned cars; Dirk started turning right when John motioned him to turn left.

"Let's go this way, alright?"

"Why? You said you wanted to go deeper into the suburbs, this way are the deepest suburban forests you'll ever see.” Besides, he saw dark grey smoke in the distance, that is cause by fires only.

John faltered with his answer. "I know, we'll just make a quick loop, okay? I really want to see what's become of Dad's shop, it's close, I promise!"

Dirk shrugged, he didn't particularly care, the job they chose didn't require to follow a precise path, so he might as well give John what he wanted.

"Fine,” he said, and they went left along the quiet street.

John was right, the shop was close indeed - or rather that's left of it.

"Oh... There it was,” John pointed at the first floor of the small building sadly. It had grey walls and large empty windows, covered with stain caused by careless wash. There was a clean lighter spot on the wall where the sigh with the shop’s name once was hanging. John sighed in melancholy, looking at the little sign on the window that said "For Rent.”

"Are you looking to open your own shop, young men?" a frail voice asked; it was an old man who has just come out of the building, perhaps a new owner of the place. The man was wiping his glasses with a handkerchief and when he put them on his nose, having a chance to properly look at Dirk's katana and John's hammer and weird clothes, he cursed and slammed the door.

"Welcome to the future,” Dirk spread his hands. "Where everyone is a saint and business deals are performed on the street, unless you are wearing a hood longer than legally permitted.”

They suddenly heard screeching coming from above, and finally saw some underlings on the top of a three-storeyed building - four winged basilisks, as John explained - but Dirk certainly didn't want to climb up there to fight them, he wanted to use his energy resources thoughtfully. He was about to announce this to John when he saw that he had the same idea.

"We should get them down here,” he said, and Dirk reminded himself that it was John who was the experienced fighter and knew the best way around these creatures here, not him.

John squinted at the basilisks, it was a very familiar expression of a fighter who was developing a plan to about to attack his opponent, Dirk has seen it a million times. In a long swift motion he threw a stick he was drawing with that he was still carrying in his hand, and it hit a head of one of the creatures with a soft  _tap_. The basilisks turned their head towards the boys instantly, and in a split second all four of them dived down like bombs dropped from a war airplane. John's hammer met the first basilisk's head in the midair and sent it crashing into the ground; Dirk focused on his own opponent and swayed the katana to cut its head off, however the basilisk was a lot quicker than he expected (or maybe his skills were rusty?), so he missed and the creature's leg fell down, black liquid dripping from it. He turned around, ready for its another advance, and when it dashed at him again, Dirk firstly deprived it of the flying advantage by cutting its wing off; it made the basilisk collapse, twitching desperately, but unable to fly, but just when Dirk stepped to it and raised the katana to finally cut its head, John smashed it with his own hammer.

Dirk looked at him furiously, allowing anger to be expressed on his face; what is John trying to accomplish here, showing off with his flashy hammer. He looked around and noticed that John has already killed all of the remaining basilisks. John extended his hand, suggesting they move out.

"I could've finished it off myself," Dirk said, counting on John to understand what exactly he felt.

"Haha,” John laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head, "Sorry, man, I guess I couldn't control my reflexes. See an underling - smash it, you know what I mean.”

Dirk didn't answer, so John added. "If you want, you can have the next bunch of underlings we come across!"

Dirk simply shrugged. It was a good idea, but he didn't want to accept John's patronage and sops thrown his way. He has always respected people with great strife skills, and he wanted to respect John too, but he couldn't help but feel jealous. In their group of friends he has always been the best fighter, that was his  _thing_ , a distinctive trait, and now some kid comes, becomes the star and demands him to yield his rightful place? Dirk didn't like when someone dominated him in his area of expertise.

They saw the old man from before peeking through the windows on the second floor with wide eyes.

"Keep away from the streets today, alright?" John yelled. The man drew the curtains without any indication of hearing them.

“Well, I think our job here is d-” John’s words were stopped abruptly by sudden appearance of a creature Dirk has never seen before: a huge, twenty feet tall thing with giant tusks sticking outside its mouth.

"Oh maybe not. This ogre is all yours, as promised,” John gestured towards the thing and then jerked in surprise when he felt buzzing coming out of his pocket. "Look, my i-telephone is ringing! Oh wow, a first call!"

He pressed it to his ear excitingly, saying "Hello, Jane!"

Dirk moved his conversation with the caller to the periphery of his mind - still listening, but not paying enough attention to distract him from the ogre. He hoped Jane didn't get in much trouble, it was too early for that, they probably didn't even reach the shop yet.

Instead he focused on the ogre, who emitted a low rumbling roar and smashed the window in the nearest building with its tusk and swung its giant fist when it saw Dirk dashing to its side.

"That's a basilisk, Jane,” John said in the background. "Please don't approach it if you don't have anything to fight with.”

His first strike into the creature's stomach was a testing one, Dirk wanted to see how much damage his blade can bring - the results were mediocre, because it only made the black oil splash out, apparently the huge mass of its body wasn't its weak spot. He should find a way to jump twenty feet up and cut its neck.

"No, Jane, it's very dangerous, believe me! You will be snapped into half in no time.”

Or maybe he doesn't need to jump.

Dirk ducked under the ogre's giant arm it was still swinging around like a club and cut it off. It had width of a tree and thus was easy to damage. Before it could come into senses he jumped to its another arm and executed the same procedure, leaving it with no means to attack.

"Just turn around and try not to think about it. You will take your vengeance when you get weaponized. Now hurry!"

Next step was easy: carefully avoiding spewing oil (god knows the last thing he wanted was to stain his clothes in this shit) he sliced both of its legs as if he was cooking a spring salad in the Ronco knives infomercial and wanted to cut extra tomatoes, the body crumpled up, exposing the now easy to cut neck. The blade flashed in the air and in a second the head hit the ground; it would roll away dramatically if the tusk didn't get stuck in the drain.

"What happened with Jane?" Dirk asked casually, wiping the oil from the blade off the ogre’s body.

"They saw a basilisk, on their way to the shop, not small winged ones, a giant one. Luckily, they saw it from far away and it didn't notice them. I told them to get out of there.”

"Good,” Dirk said, but he began feeling very worried.

"Well, enough of staring at my Dad's former shop, I think... Let's go where we planned to,” he said and then sighed sadly. "You know... I don't think I should've gone here, I was better off not knowing how it all looked now. Hearing about it being closed is one thing, but seeing it with my own eyes..."

His words drifted off as Dirk was thinking about his friends. He should have gone with them for protection, and left John alone to do his business, he clearly can do this on his own. Why did they even agree to follow John's plan? Right, because it was the only functioning plan they had and it seems great at a time. What if they decide not to listen to John and go fight that basilisk? No matter how hard he tried to teach them to keep themselves under control, their actions could still be hasty. On the other hand, it's certainly not something Jane would do, so he shouldn't worry about her. Roxy... She can be reckless, but Jane is her priority and she won't jump into the storm if it means endangering her. Jake... he usually avoids trouble, but if someone provokes him and he feels the need to prove his adventurous spirit... (His mind took a moment to spring away into thinking if he was Jake's priority in similar situation, would he give up on showing his bravado off?)

"Are you even listening?" John looked at him indignantly.

"Yes, yes, your father's shop is for sale now, my condolences,” Dirk answered, his mind already sprinting ahead as he pulled out his phone. What if Jake or the girls get hurt, it would be all his fault. He has always thought of himself as a protector of the group, a knight on a white stallion. Or a prince. It was another one of his defining traits and he was doing a poor job of holding up to it.

Around the corner they saw a bunch of imps running away carrying various items, like a laptop and a bottle of ice tea, they were giggling madly (or whatever is an imp’s equivalent of a giggle), their wide trickstery grins were showing off rows of white teeth.

“Give it back, you!!” A woman running behind them yelled, apparently these were her belongings; her hands were covered in scratches and bruises - obviously, she's put up a fight. Despite having short stumpy legs the imps were quick runners and the woman couldn’t keep up; but Dirk and John were quicker and it didn’t take them too long to get rid of creatures, they didn't even spill a drop of the woman's tea. She collected her things, pressing them tightly to her chest, and eyed both the boys and the imps dreadingly.

"T-thank you,” she stuttered, out of breath. “Who... who are they? And who are you?" she asked, hugging her laptop. She was shaking, the initial shock that made her chase the imps bravely has left, giving place to fear.

Dirk stepped forward, holding out his hand seriously, which the woman reluctantly shook.

"Agent Maplehoof, FBI, special task force. It is my duty to inform you that the area is undergoing the attack of the newest governmental biological weapon that has broken loose.”

The woman's mouth fell open. "Are you mocking me?!" she sounded hysterical.

Dirk took his phone, selecting Jake from the contacts list and typing in  _"How are things?"_

"I have just sent a confirmation about cleaning the area to the head of our department,” he said. The phone peeped when the reply arrived, "and he says the government has issued the official orders of staying indoors. Warn everyone you know.”

She gaped at him, like a second head has popped out of his shoulders and John dragged a palm down his face.

"Just stay inside your house, alright, ma'am? These creatures are dangerous, you don’t want to come near them.”

The woman took a few steps back, still facing them, and then turned to walk away fast, almost running, without saying a word.

John watched her leave and as soon as she disappeared behind the building he turned to Dirk.

"What was up with FBI bullcrap? No that I don't approve of a good prank, but this is not a time we should be joking around."

"People love believing shit officials say,” Dirk shrugged as they started walking again.

"She didn't believe you, that's for sure, have you seen the look she gave you? If you really want to pretend to be an undercover agent you should wear a-”

"I’m not wearing a suit. As for the woman, she is angry now, so she is definitely going to tell everyone, otherwise she might have thought it was all a dream.”

John sighed wearily. “I can keep contradicting, but whatever my arguments are you are simply going to say that it’s all part of your plan?”

"Exactly,” Dirk pointed on him. “You are quick on catching on.”

Their journey became more exciting when they reached the denser part of the suburbs, the streets there were full of underlings, mostly ogres and imps who were pretty easy to destroy, especially after some practice. Dirk’s personal record so far was slicing up five imps at once. Between strives John entertained the silence by telling trivia about the town, which was sometimes boring, like "Miss Pat here used to give the best Halloween candy,” sometimes amusing, like "Dave fell down the well here when we were eleven,” sometimes interesting, "like Donn Jones used to live here and play his guitar so loud they had to call the police.” That last bit was interesting because Dirk actually _knew_ Donn Jones, he became a rapper, famous among certain groups of people. When he told John that, his eyes instantly went wide, and he began telling the names of his twenty or more classmates to see if they have become something, and was slightly disappointed when he learned Dirk haven't heard about any of them.

"They have always told us that our class was a failure, but I thought it is something all teachers say to their pupils, I didn't think it would turn out to be true.”

"I am from another state, remember? Ask Roxy, she will tell you who became local famous criminal or whatever you what them to be.”

John continued asking questions about the events he missed, which then transferred into more serious questions about the country, new president, and whether there were any wars, but the lesson in politics was interrupted when they saw some basilisks flying over them. Of course, they were too high up, so the boys couldn’t do anything about them.

“Hey, you!!” John screamed, waving his hands, but they didn’t notice him. The hammer in this raised hand was glimmering in the sunlight, when John turned to Dirk to start a conversation again, he beat him to it, asking his own question.

“Where did you get this hammer?”

John stroked the handle lovingly.

“Sburb gave it to me. Remember when I said that I found the clothes and a place to live in that world? Well, when I started living there and saw how many underlings wanted to hunt me down I was afraid I won’t last for long, I was just running and hiding for the first couple of days, but then I found a chest with this wonderful hammer – I think Sburb gave it to me as a chance to survive and to return home. As you have probably noticed, it is no regular hammer, it can cause more damage than all those silly building tools. It is the essence of pure awesomeness and I would be dead within a week without it. I don't think Sburb wants us dead to be honest, it wants us to get tougher or something, or to teach us a life lesson?”

"Tone down your Stockholm syndrom, will you?" Dirk said when he saw John lost in his musings.

"The what?"

"Right now you are expressing symptoms of falling in love with your captor, that's the syndrom.”

"Why thank you, Mr. Psychologist!" John said, and then shook his head and pressed his lips into a thin line. "The future has invented so many strange things."

Two winged basilisks ran across the road; the boys swung their respective weapons in a synchronized motion, leaving them lying in a pool of black liquid.

"And you know what I realized,” John continued like nothing happened, “There are so many movies I missed! When everything is settled, I am going to watch every movie that was released! Well, maybe not all of them, just the highest grossing. Do you know any good ones that you could recommend?"

"That's not a question I can answer. You better ask Jake, he is the movie expert." And by expert he meant that Jake watched and loved every single movie produced.

The amount of winged basilisks they were meeting actually made Dirk think about some new strategies.

“We need to regroup,” he said. “Me and Jake versus you, Jane and Roxy.”

"Any comments or explanations about this decision?" John asked.

"Unfortunately, no matter how good we are at slaying the monsters, our possibilities are limited by the nature of our weapons. By mixing up with Jake, Jane and Roxy we are going to cover both the close combat and ranged combat - with their firearms."

"Good idea. Are you sure they are going to get firearms though? What if they get knives or... whatever tickles their fancy."

Jake and Roxy were going to take guns, that's no doubt. Those swordfighting lessons he was constantly offering Jake would come really in handy right now, but noooo, he has always refused because "guns are so much cooler.” And they are going to convince Jane to join their shooting team, so this was a thing Dirk was sure about. Besides –

"Jake has texted me earlier saying they got the guns."

"Good! My friend Jade can shoot a gun like she was born with one in her hands, you know," John said, "Even though I think guns can be a little impractical, with all the bullets you constantly need to shove in them."

Dirk was glad they found the common ground on this issue, but instead he asked:

"Did Sburb give her a gun too?"

"Yes, it did. I think Jade was the luckiest among four of us, because she really knew how to use her weapon. My good pal Rose was the least lucky; the only thing she could find on her planet were knitting needles. But she made them serve as a deadly weapon, because she is amazing. My other good pal, Dave, who is also your ancestor - and wow, this is weird, I shouldn't have said it - got a sword. Granted, he somehow managed to break it the first time he used it, but even with a broken sword he successfully survived everything Sburb threw at him, because he is amazing too. All of my friends are amazing," John smiled happily, remembering his friends. Cars were honking in the background very distantly; their noises were mixed with the sound of police sirens.

They ran into two more ogres who were smashing a house just for the sake of smashing something; some imps were cooperating by taking the owners' belongings and carrying them out of the huge holes conveniently ripped in the walls.

John wiped his glasses that were instantly plastered with dust, and said:

"You take ones on the left; I take ones on the right."

Dirk raised his katana again, "Whatever you say, grandpa." He could get used to this routine. Actually, he already did.

They sliced the creatures up, took the belongings, unfortunately soaked in black oil, and threw them through the holes, pretending they care about them landing in places they were originally standing on. Even though most of things were fortunately unbroken, they were lucky the owners weren't home, because they would've been angry with seeing their carelessness - or maybe not, if they were home they would be busy being dead at the moment. So turns out, in the end they chose a lesser evil between death and destruction of material property.

They took a step back to admire their hard work of saving the house from being completely destroyed, and John turned to Dirk to say something again, when suddenly something giant ripped through the house and stared at them, baring rows of sharp teeth shining in contrast with wide purely black face.

"Oh come on! We have just saved the house," John said, exasperated. "Stupid underlings, they always ruin anything."

He didn't even flinch when the basilisk lashed out at him, he simply sounded irritated and even bored.

"This is a real basilisk, the one Jane encountered earlier," he said and rushed to smack the creature's face with a hammer to prevent it from closing its jaws onto him. The basilisk actually wailed, and instead turned at Dirk, who sliced its face in one smooth move, which made it back off.

"How many of those things have you slain of LOWAS?" Dirk asked as he executed the same tactic as before by cutting the creatures legs and immobilizing it.

"I don't know, I didn't exactly keep a tally," John smashed the basilisk’s head with the hammer – the blow didn’t defeat it, but it was weakened noticeably.

Dirk’s phone chimed with a new text; he didn't want to wait to read it, so he skimmed over the phone's screen to see that Roxy has written _“we r back! where r u? we have so many exciting stories!!"_  

Without discussing, John and he simultaneously stroke the now lowered head of the basilisk which turned out to be a fatal blow that left it motionless, half of its body still lying inside the smashed house.

“Roxy said they have returned, we need to go too,” Dirk said as he typed _“Great news, we are making a U-turn then. Can’t wait to hear your stories. Don’t roll the dice without us.”_ in reply. John nodded and stepped over the basilisk’s leg, carrying his hood carefully in his hands.

And then... Dirk heard them before they even turned the siren on - everyone disagreed with him, but he thought the police cars tires had a very distinctive sound. Instantly Dirk grabbed John and shoved him into the nearest bushes despite his protests and presses on top of his head to keep it from sticking out.

"What the hell is going on?" John hissed. Two officers exited the car and went to the building to inspect it and the underlings' carcasses. They talked in hushed voices the boys couldn't hear. Of course, they _could_ tell the police everything, Dirk thought that on the one hand they could use the equipment and power police had; but on the other hand he had enough experience that shows the adults' complete disregard to anything a person younger than thirty proposed, so they should expect nothing but a prescription to stay away from everything if they told them the truth about Sburb. They would also probably take the game and John to inspect them both to use this technology for the military, and they are going to say that the citizens had a mass hallucination.

"You know, it would help a lot if you voiced your thoughts sometimes," John sounded mad. "How can your friends even understand you?"

Dirk shushed him and motioned to leave the garden through the neighbour entrance, leaving the officers to try and figure out what has happened.

"We don't want to get noticed by the police, they will ask too many unnecessary questions.”

“I totally agree. The least people know the better. We can’t stop them from seeing what they see, but they would panic even more if they knew what Sburb is able to do,” John paused, thinking the whole idea through. “Oh maybe they would panic less if we told them the truth?... No, no, that is too much to explain. It would be the best if we stick to the first plan and simply finish the game before anyone can figure out what’s going on.”

He waved his hands around like the thoughts of telling the truth were annoying flies.

“Let’s go through alleys, so that nobody would notice us,” he added and led the way to the narrow interlacing sidestreets.

They avoided meeting anyone on their way back to the Lalonde residence, even though they sometimes caught the splinters of conversations people who couldn’t see them had on the streets – some of them were discussing the situation calmly, thinking it’s a hoax; some sounded afraid because they assumed the rumors were true, but none of them were completely sure.

When they arrived to their destination the first thing Dirk noticed was that the planks covering the windows were all gone. It made the house look friendlier, because now it was filled with sunlight, and the air inside has actually become warmer.

It seems that Jane, Jake and Roxy didn’t waste their time of waiting for them; they carried some pillows, arranged them in a circle on the floor and now they were sitting on them, with the game lying open in the middle. It was surrounded by lit candles that substituted the out of order chandelier, which made them look like they were about to perform a satanic ritual. Which, actually, wasn’t that far from the truth.

Jake’s face lightened up when he saw them and he waved at them immediately.

“Hey mate, look what I’ve snatched out of the shop!” and he flashed two brand new pistols at them. “And Roxy has a rifle now, so we are absolutely ready to splice with you in a quest of butchering the monsters roaming this town!”

Dirk and John joined the circle too.

“What did Jane got?” Dirk asked, and Jane showed a giant white fork lying beside her.

“I had to vandalize a local landmark, but it was for the greater good,” she smiled slightly.

“Don’t you worry, dear, they’ll forgive you!” Roxy assured. “You gonna be named a hero for saving the town, with a shiny golden medal and everything.”

“I understand there were no injuries?” Dirk half-stated, half-asked. He observed his friends and there were no visible harm done to them.

“No,” Jake answered. “But there were circumstances when those injuries could occur, but because we were superb and also fortuitous, we avoided them. How about you?”

“I am always fine, you know it,” Dirk answered quickly. “What were those circumstances?..”

“We fought a basilisk!” Roxy exclaimed and turned to John. “And don’t look at me like that, I know that you said we shouldn’t come near it, it was an accident! Besides, we totally dominated it, so I don’t know what you were worrying about.”

John shook his head. “Of course I was worried, you all are so inexperienced. Let’s see, how many underlings have you destroyed?”

Jake looked at Roxy, puzzled. “Approximately around ten, I assume? If we are counting the imps too.”

“I am sorry if this sounds harsh,” John said firmly. “It may seem impressive to you, but in reality you got lucky, it is not enough to survive. I could understand if Dirk said something like this instead, because together we wipe out nearly sixty of them,” at this moment Jake whistled quietly, looking at Dirk like he has just came from the skies, or a movie poster.

Dirk frowned. “Way to discourage my friends, dude.”

“Trust me, we are not discouraged,” Jane said flatly, raising her eyebrows.

“I am simply warning you, don’t think it is easy, don’t relax!” John made a helpless gesture. “If you lived on LOWAS, you would understand-”

“Yes, yes, you went through some tough shit, we got it,” Dirk interrupted. “Let’s do less talking and more

John hemmed, but didn’t object. Dirk reached out to the game with an intention of taking the dice, but Roxy deemed his motion unnecessary.

“Oops, sorry Dirky, I called first dibs,” she showed the dice she was holding in her hand. “It’s my turn.”

“Do it,” Jane stared at the game intensely, her muscles strained with tension.

Roxy dropped the dice, which showed sides with numbers one and three.

Everyone bowed down to look at the game closely, the green words flashed again and Jane read them aloud:

_“His coat is black, his fangs are bared,_

_The demon's coming. Be prepared.”_

Of course, everyone turned to John immediately.

“Who is the demon?” Jake voiced everyone's question.

John shook his head, looking nearly panicked.

“I don’t know... Sounds like an underling, maybe it is another type of them? But Sburb won’t be repetitive... Black coat, black coat. I don’t know who else it could be!”

He tugged his hair anxiously.

The game didn't wait for them to figure its riddle out; a shining sphere appeared, this time it was bright green with sparks of electricity running through it. All of them clutched the handles of their respective weapons as they watched it floating slowly upwards, like a bubble in a sea of thick oil, struggling to get on the surface.

And then, like with John, it finally burst open with a green flare, releasing two figures.

To describe the creature standing before them one could say he was a mix of a human, a bird and a dog. He was tall, pure black like the underlings, one of his bright white eyes on the face of a dog was crossed with a scar; he had giant obsidian wings the tips of which were touching the ceiling, the silky feathers were glistening in the candlelight. A sword was piercing his chest, but judging by how he didn’t notice it, they concluded that it was a part of him.

But John didn’t seem to pay much attention to the dogbird, instead his eyes were glued to the girl standing in front of him, a girl with long black hair, round glasses and black clothes, she had a gun behind her back and it seemed like her brightest green eyes reflected electricity around.

“Jade!!” he cried in desperate happiness, jumped of his feet and pulled her into a tight hug immediately.

 


	5. Girl's Best Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jade joins the action.  
> Things happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A relatively short chapter, I'm sorry. That's all I had time to write, the finals are killing me.  
> But at least I finally got to write about my favourite Homestuck character!...

Several things happened at once in a blink of an eye: just as John grabbed Jade into a hug, the winged dog pulled a sword out of his chest and raised it, ready for attack; in response Dirk immediately jumped on his feet and raised his own, his blade collided with the dog’s; Jake drew his pistols and aimed at the creature; his fingers moved on the triggers, Jade saw it, shoved John’s arms off her, darted towards Jake and shouted “Don’t shoot!!”, but it was too late because the bullets were already flying at the direction of dog’s menacing snout. The dog’s silhouette lit up with green light before the bullets could come in contact with it, there was a cracking noise of electricity, the same as they heard when he appeared, and the next thing they knew the bullets changed their direction and were flying back at Jake’s head; they missed their target only because Jade sprung out and tackled him, both of them hit the floor heavily, knocking off some of the candles.

Before anyone could grasp what happened, Jade rose from the top of Jake and turned to face the dog with a furious expression. She hunched her shoulders, striking a threatening pose and made a low hissing noise, drawing near the dog slowly. The dog froze and his ears dropped slightly, despite being taller than her by three heads he looked hesitatingly submissive. He growled quietly, as if testing whether it was a good idea to do it, but Jade growled louder in return, baring teeth in a canine-like fashion, raised her hands with fingers curved like claws, and the dog backed off. She kept approaching the dog slowly, not breaking eye contact, like she was hypnotizing him; and navigating him in such a way that when he took the last step his back set against the window.

“Shoo!” She spit out the word sharply, the dog flinched at the volume, dropped on his three legs immediately, jumping out the window, unfolding his wings and flying away.

John was looking at her in amazement, like she was a candy you find in the pocket when you think you are all out; Jade was looking at him like he was the last parking stop near the mall during Black Friday; in a split second they were hugging each other again tightly. Jane and Jake exchanged awkward glances, as if pondering whether they should go and let the two friends have their private moment of reunion.

John finally moved away from Jade, holding her by the elbows, and said: “Gosh, I can’t believe I finally see you again!”

His voice was filled with happiness and relief, and Jade laughed softly.

“You look older than I imagined,” she pinched John’s cheeks. “Almost like a mature adult.”

She stepped away, turning to the other four kids, and they could finally take a closer look on her. She was wearing clothes somehow resembling John’s, but with two long hoods instead of one, and under the knee-long skirt there were striped black-and-white stockings and sparkling red shoes. A gun was strapped to her back, a simple one, nothing like John’s excessively designed hammer. She tucked loose strands of long black hair behind her ear and said:

“Sorry, I didn’t introduce myself! I am Jade Harley; and you are?...”

“These are the guys who found Sburb and decided to play it too,” John answered instead, and pointed at Jane. “Jane here rolled the dice and got eight points, which released me!”

Jane gave her a small wave, Jade hugged her too and said “thank you” quietly.

“And I am Roxy,” Roxy said and extended her hand towards Jade, “and these two are Jake and Dirk.”

Everyone shook Jade’s hand; they noticed that she had a very strong grip.

“But what set you free?” John furrowed. “I don’t remember your riddle saying anything about number four...”

“It’s a long story...” Jade mused, and John answered by dropping on the floor and propping his chin in his hands, showing that he is ready to listen. Jake, Dirk, Jane and Roxy all gathered around him and prepared to listen too.

Jade hummed, thinking about where to start.

“Well, when I arrived on LOFAF – the Land of Frost and Frogs, that’s what I named it – I was so lonely, you know how I was the last one to find a communication device... I wondered around the planet, and one day I found him, the dog you saw before. I named him Jack Noir. He was just as lonely as I was, because he lived there longer than I could imagine. He was created by the game to be the bad guy of Sburb; that is why when I first met Jack he tried to attack me. I ran away and hid in a place that resembled my grandpa’s old house, but as the time passed and I was sitting there, hidden from the world, marinating in loneliness and self-pity – I realized that I couldn’t give up on him, he was my only chance to have a little company. I love dogs and I had experience training Bec, so I did the same with Jack – I was patient and soon... he wasn’t exactly domesticated, but he didn’t try to kill me anymore. At times I thought he maybe even considered me his friend, but in the end I couldn’t completely override the characteristics programmed into him by Sburb, so he still attacked me sometimes. It was so conflicting to him, two opposite believes were clashed... poor Jack,” She paused briefly, looking sad, and then continued. “We made a pact. I was to provide him company, talk to him, let him chase me sometimes, allow him to live a real dog’s happy life – and in return he taught me about certain tunnels in time and space that open when a person from the real world is transported into the game, and how to use them to my advantage. It was a fair exchange, seeing how I know a thing or two about being lonely, and I know what it feels like. So when I saw the portal opening to summon Jack, I was able to use it too. I think it was a part of being a Witch of Space, like my riddle said. I mean, even the clothes I found have a swirly thing on them that looks like something associated with space,” She poked a finger at the white symbol on her chest.

“This is an amazing story, Jade,” Roxy said in awe.

“Is he gone for good now?” Jane asked.

“I don’t think so. Jack appeared here with one mission: to attack us, and even though he listens to me, I don’t think my commands will be able to completely stop him. It’s like with underlings, they are destructive in their core, nothing will be able to make them change their minds.”

John, the local underlings expert, nodded fiercely to confirm her last statement. He then proceeded to explain their current situation to her – about the future, the trips they made and the game they played; they expected Jade to get sad when the shocking information about how the town and people have changed was revealed, but she reacted excitedly instead. As it turns out, she didn’t have any family members who were alive even when she was thirteen – so she didn’t have anyone to grieve about. She explained that she has always considered her friends to be her real family. Moreover, she became even more excited when they told her about Roxy’s relation to Rose and Dirk’s relation to Dave and Jade said that it means they are automatically included in the Harley family too. She sounded so chipper they couldn’t help but be charmed by her attitude and feel optimistic about an outcome of their adventure; but the game couldn’t let their happy moment last for long – merry atmosphere was ruined when something exploded nearby.

The whole house shook and made glass chandelier jingle, a couple of candles fell down right on the pillows they were sitting on (Jake hurried to extinguish the fire with his bare hands, burning several fingers in the process), Jade darted to the window at super-sonic speed, John close on her feet.

Jade looked around the area carefully, locating the damage, and groaned.

“Oh no,” she was fidgeting with the ends of her grey hoods anxiously. “Oh no no no...”

“What happened there?” Jake asked worryingly, sticking his burned fingers into Dirks hands.

“I haven’t thought about it, I’m so sorry,” Jade looked at everyone pleadingly. “I chased Jack away, so he found a new target. He blew up a house over there.”

“He can do that?” Roxy asked in disbelief, and everyone crowded around the window to look at the clearly noticeable green fire blazing in the distance, stronger with each second. It looked like the burning house was missing the top floors.

“You’ll be surprised to know what he can do...” Jade shook her head. “I should have never let him leave.”

John stroked her shoulder in a calming manner.

“He would blow us up instead then. You did what you had to.”

“Actually...” Jade bit her lips, thinking. “You know how I told you that I don’t think he is able to kill me...”

She turned and eyed everyone, determined.

“I will go out and find him, to keep him busy and prevent him from killing the innocent,” she fixed the gun behind her back and looked ready to head out.

“Good plan, but before you go,” Dirk stopped her, “I propose we establish a new rule: nobody goes anywhere on their own, we are going to be safer this way.”

“Alright, I will go with Jade,” John reacted instantly. It seemed like now that he got his friend back he wouldn’t let her out of his sight.

“I suggest I go with you too,” Jane chimed in. “Stopping Jack is not the only problem in need of being solved, I imagine a lot of people were injured, we have to help them as much as we can.”

“I agree,” John and Jade said in unison, and Dirk added:

“As for me, I am going to stay here and roll the dice. After that it is Jake’s turn, so he would probably want to stay too. Is that correct?” He asked, and Jake smiled reassuringly.

It seems everyone had quests they were certain they wanted to fulfill; everyone but Roxy. She was torn apart between wanting to go with Jane and help people, and just stay with Jane and ensure her wellbeing, but she also realized that Dirk and Jake might need her, because their task was a lot more dangerous. Who knew what hazardous events would the game cause? What if it summons a chupacabra, or a vampire, or a Godzilla, or someone else who will be eager to dine on the flesh of her two friends? What if... She couldn’t take this risk and thus, her mind was made up.

“I will stay with you guys,” Roxy said. “Gotta make sure you continue being alive. And you three... stay safe, okay? And make sure you keep us updated about the situation.”

“Same applies to you,” Jane answered, small smile tugging the corners of her lips. “See you soon.”

 

***

 

“Okay, is everyone prepared, mentally and physically?” Roxy asked. The other half of their rescue-the-town-from-an-evil-dog team has already left and now they were sitting around the board game lying on the floor in illusive tranquility.

“Absolutely,” Jake answered and cocked his pistol. His fingers moved carefully to avoid brushing bright red burns with cold metal. “If something like a giant snake will show its ugly face I will blast it off faster than you can say Jack Robinson.”

“Think before shooting,” Dirk took the dice. “It might be other kids from John’s group travelling through portals again.”

Jake frowned, but put the pistol away nevertheless.

Dirk raised his palm above the Sburb’s surface and dropped the little cubes that fell down with single dots showing on both sides.

“Cool, you’ve got doubles, it means you will get another chance!” Jake pointed at the panel to remind them about the rules that said _“Doubles get another turn”._

In a motion that has already become familiar to everyone, they bent to look at new words appearing in the centre of Sburb. The rhymes said:

_“Out of darkness they will crawl,_

_Your key is to be thinking small”._

Roxy sighed with relief: “Something small, huh? Lucky us!”

She still stood up and took a step back, not letting her guard down knowing about possible circumstances.

The boys did the same, just in time to see a single small purple bug crawling out of the centre of the game. The three friends exchanged confused glances.

“What is this?” Jake looked at the bug that was trying to climb up his boot. He kicked it away carelessly. “Doesn’t look that much threatening, if you ask me.”

Two more bugs climbed out of the game, like it was an intangible portal.

“I don’t know! But the Internet does,” Roxy made some complicated movements near her ear to activate the camera on her mini-computer that snapped a picture. The transparent glass unrolled over her eye and flashed several pictures. “The best guess is scarabs, but these are nothing like the scarabs I know.”

“But if they are it means they are carnivores!” Jake said, remembering all the scarabs trivia he knew. “We should really strive to avoid them. Should be easy, right?”

As if the game was waiting for him to say those words to perform an act of cruel irony, the game shook and, like a hole was breached in a levee, an impossible amount of bugs slopped over at the floor. Jake quickly climbed on the closest surface he could find – the window-sill, drawing his legs in. Dirk and Roxy remained standing, not caring about being ankle-deep in beetles, and the latter just waved her hand nonchalantly.

“Calm down, Jake, you’ve watched too many Mummy movies. The real scarabs are not flesh-eaters, they are simple dung beetles. Unless you are made out of dung-“

She stopped talking abruptly when both she and Dirk jerked and hissed in pain because of some scarabs that climbed under their pants and plunged their jaws in their legs. Surprisingly, that hurt a lot, and Roxy back away, stumbling over some kind of a bedside table and then climbing to stand on it; while Jake reached out to grab the collar of Dirk’s jacket and pull him onto the window-sill.

Both of them ripped the scarabs off their legs – they came off with chunks of bloodied skin – and throw them into the flood of other beetles that were covering the floor in a thick two-feet layer. They smelled blood and covered the scarabs that were thrown in in attempt to get a taste of it.

“Told you so,” Jake said, but with in a worried tone instead of arrogant.

“Alright then, next time we are simply going to assume the worst about anything we encounter,” Roxy said, pressing her palms against the wall in order to attain balance.

Jake fired a couple of shots at the scarabs mass, but Dirk laid his hand over Jake’s, forcing him to lower the pistol.

“Don’t waste the bullets,” he said. “All our weapons are useless here.”

Jake groaned, exasperated.

The thoughts of jumping on the floor and quickly running out of the room were disregarded as crazy; the scarabs seemed to crave flesh and they were incoming like waves during high tide, trying to get to the kids. The boys were relatively safe, protected by the steep smooth wall that wasn’t easy to climb on; but Roxy found herself in a position of constant need to throw the scarabs off the artistically carved table; some of them used the ends of her too long scarf to catch on – she shook them off violently.

“God gracious, what are we to do then, sit here all day until we got rescued by Jane? We fought giant monsters, basilisks and whatnot, and now we are going to allow ourselves be defeated by a bunch of  _insects_?”

Roxy looked at him in indignation and made a wide gesture, as if welcoming him to be a hero and join the sea of purple scarabs. On the bright side, at least it seemed like the game stopped producing new ones.

“Well, unless you have a bug spray, we are stuck,” she said.

“Even if we had it, I highly doubt that it would be able to affect them in any kind of murderous way...” Jake replied; then paused, thinking, and suddenly smacked his forehand.

“I am an utter dunderhead, how could I forget! I have a solution!”

He made a 180 degrees turn, swinging his legs outside the window, facing the empty street.

“When I lived with Grandma on that island we had certain insects there that were practically immortal, and she taught me an old school method of evaporating them, we used to throw in a bait for them and set them on fire... You will see how it works, I will entice them away once I re-enter the house from the opposite side!”

“You are going to climb down the wall? I see,” Dirk looked down, measuring the distance from the third floor to the ground and prepared to move down as well, but Jake stopped him.

“Not you! Let me have this one, it is going to be like my wondrous personal quest to save you guys!” he sounded excited to be the only person who knows how to deal with the situation.

Usually Dirk would be actively against him going into a potentially dangerous situation alone, both because of being concern for his safety and because of constant need to be in control, even though he began to realize lately that he was acting like a control freak. But right now Jake looked very determined, besides, the situation they were in has crazily turned everything upside down, so he shoved all the puppet master notions deep inside and didn’t say anything.

“Do whatever you want, Jake, just make it fast, okay?” Roxy said hastily; she was smashing scarabs that managed to get on the surface of the table with the butt of her rifle.

Jake nodded and began moving carefully against the wall, feeling for holes and dents he could stand on, but his burnt fingers were still hurting, so when he reached the second floor he wasn’t able to hold on any longer and fell down, sliding down the wall and hitting the chin on a brick. He took a couple of seconds to come to his senses, pressed a hand against the scratched skin and noticed bright red drops decorating the front of his white t-shirt. But instead of wallowing in pain he figured that it only worked to his advantage, because the smell of fresh blood was the best bait for them; so when he showed up in the doorway and shook some blood collected into his palm onto the scarabs, they followed him immediately, leaving Roxy and Dirk alone.

As he expected, the kitchen and the stairs were still covered in oily substance left from Jane’s and John’s fight with imps; he lit one of the candles and waited until most of the scarabs slid into the oil and dropped the candle. It immediately caught fire and the scarabs started quivering and popping in the heat. Roxy let out a war-cry and raised both fists in the air – Jake answered by striking a victorious pose.

“Grandma’s recipes are better than any gizmos!” he said, and winced, because the torn skin around his mouth didn’t let him smile too wide.

This short episode left everyone more damaged than they were before – Dirk and Roxy had their ankles covered in bites, their pants were torn as well by the most hungry and enthusiastic scarabs; Jake sported raw cuts and scratches all over his hands and face. Despite this, Roxy still thought that everything turned out well.

“Well it wasn’t too bad, right?” she said, and wanted to add something else about the positive outlook on the situation, but her phone rang – she took the call immediately worrying it might be Jane with bad news, but was relieved when she heard her mother’s voice. The relief didn’t last long, because this was the first time she heard Mom sounding so panicked.

“Roxy, where are you?! Are you okay?!” her voice rang through cracking white noise of the cellular transmission.

“Yes, I am totally fine, Mom,” Roxy answered calmly, crashing several stray scarabs that were left unburned with her snicker’s heel. “And you?”

But Mom didn’t answer, instead asking again in a more demanding tone:

“Where are you? Tell me now!”

“We are...” Roxy’s eyes darted frantically from side to side searching for inspiration to lie. “...at the Aquarium. With my friends. I’m showing them the Aquarium.”

There was no answer, just gruff breathing in the receiver. Roxy’s worry grew with each second.

“Are you alright, Mom? Are you hurt?...”

There was a brief pause and she answered in a quieter voice:

“...Yes,” she said, and Roxy froze. “But do not worry about me.”

“Where are you, in a hospital? What happened?”

“No, I am at home. And you should come too, promptly. I am waiting for you,” her voice became typically sharp again, and with these words Ruth Lalonde ended the call.

Roxy turned to her friends who were watching her intently.

“I’m so sorry guys, it was my Mom, and she sounded really serious. I have to go home for a while, I need to check on her; she said she is hurt. Are you going to be okay?”

“Of course,” Jake said. “We are ready for more evil insects to come.”

Roxy bit her lips anxiously and made a wry face.

“I hate separation. It never ends well...”

“The only situation it doesn’t well is Scooby Doo cartoons,” Dirk shrugged. “We are not helpless.”

“I will be back soon, I promise,” Roxy wrapped the scarf around her neck in an extra layer, and then Jake remembered something.

“What about our don’t-go-alone rule? Who should accompany you on your journey?”

“I’ll request backup from our Jack Noir assassination group,” Roxy answered, tapping the mini-computer pinned up in her blonde hair. “You take care of Sburb.”

“Roger, ma’am,” Jake saluted, and with that settled, Roxy headed home.

 

***

 

Roxy was walking on the streets towards an intersection where she and Jane, who volunteered to escort her, agreed to meet up, when suddenly she heard another voice calling her name. She turned and saw Jade running up to her; she stopped to let her catch up quickly and watched her in confusion while she took a moment to catch her breath.

“I thought Jane wanted to go with me?” Roxy asked.

“We rethought this arrangement and decided it would be the best if I go. First of all, because Jack will most likely be drawn to me, meaning that if I leave he will probably leave too. Also, Jane is too preoccupied displaying hints of the Life aspect,” Jade explained, clattering of her red shoes could be heard clearly in a quiet street.

“Life aspect? What is this?”

“Well, how do I explain this... When we were trapped in the game we learned about the existence of certain bases of knowledge, thematic knowledge, about Time, Space, Life and others. The game calls them aspects, and apparently, as a reward upon finishing the game one shall be granted access to an aspect, but firstly you have to show that you are ready to accept it. At least, that is what we gathered from studying the inner mechanics of Sburb; this game is very cryptic when it comes to giving answers. Anyway, Jane stayed to save injured people and make sure no one dies – this might mean that if she wins she will find out secrets of Life.”

“At least this awful game was fair enough to set great rewards for winning...” Roxy said. “What aspect do you have?”

“Space, I suppose. I learned about the portals from Jack and it was in my riddle – there is nearly a 100% probability of me being connected to Space.”

“But does it mean that only one person can win? The one who reaches the end first?”

Jade sighed and shook her head.

“I’m afraid I have no idea. Even after three years of being inside its world I doubt that we have even started scratching the surface of the endless mysteries of this game.”

“Okay... What about John then, did he displayed an, um, interest in something?”

“He should have a Breath Aspect, again, because of the symbol on his clothes and the words of his rhyme,” Jade answered without hesitation.

“So basically you can just look at what’s drawn on your clothes and know what kind of qualities you are supposed to demonstrate? Don’t you think it’s a bit weird that Sburb helps you out with this?”

“An act of fairness again, I suppose,” Jade shrugged. “Call it a perk to balance out the tormenting survival on an unknown planet. Still not a very good balance, if you ask me, but I will take what I can get.”

Roxy nodded slowly and wondered what kind of Aspect she would get if she won the game.

Meanwhile Jade spotted a group of five flying basilisks in the sky and fired five clear shots, effectively knocking them out. Roxy was amazed to see how masterfully she operated a rifle, especially when she remembered how much effort it caused her to kill just one.

“Infinite ammunition,” Jade patted her gun contentedly. “Another one of Sburb’s rewards for surviving. So what are you going to tell your mother when you meet her?” she asked, switching topics.

Roxy was uncertain what to say; on the one hand, Mom probably wouldn’t understand or even believe their story, and on the other hand, the situation was too substantial to cover it up with a lie.

“I think we should tell Mom the truth,” she answered finally. “As far as I've understood she confronted some _‘exciting consequences of the game’_ , so I think she will have the decency to listen and understand the whole story.”

“I am going to back you up if needed,” Jade smiled, and just at that moment they reached the house.

Roxy’s worry grew stronger than before when she saw the front door wide open, and transformed into fear when they went upstairs and she saw her mother in a torn dress decorated with a stain of clotted blood on her left shoulder, crimson colour of which stood out in contrast with whiteness of the dress. She was in a hurry, stuffing clothes in a suitcase clumsily, using only one hand.

“Mom!” Roxy exclaimed and darted towards her. Jade stayed in the doorway.

“Pack you things, Roxy, we are leaving,” Ruth snapped without looking up.

“Leaving? What?” Roxy felt as if she was dumped cold water at. “No-no-no, I can’t leave!”

“Haven’t you seen what’s going on in the town?” she looked at her daughter in a hostile way that was caused by pain and fear, and then noticed Jade. Her eyes narrowed. “Who is this? And...” her eyes flew wide open in shock, “are you carrying a gun?!”

“This is my friend Jade, and yes, I have a gun, I needed to protect myself, because I know what’s going on, I was in the epicenter...” Roxy paused and closed her eyes, bracing herself for the storm coming after her next words. “Because I kinda was the one who caused it all.”

“WHAT?!” Ruth shrieked. Roxy took a tiniest step back.

“Yes, we found this game that released all this creatures... It was in our old house, I took Jane, Jake and Dirk there-” Ruth didn’t let her finish.

“I knew that Strider boy was behind all this!” She blurted out, losing her temper completely. “I knew it! They are thugs and liars, they bring nothing but trouble for our family! Hurry up, Roxy, our plane leaves in two hours.”

She went to the closet quickly to pick some more clothing items and throw them into the suitcase, not caring about how crumpled they became. She then paced to the boudoir, but Roxy stood in her way, looking her straight in the eyes. Roxy was tall for her age, and the two women were almost the same height.

“Are you even listening to what I am saying? I said it was my fault, and now we are trying to fix it! I can’t leave! Everything depends on us, on me too!”

Jade looked at both of them awkwardly from where she was standing.

“How on Earth are you going to fix it?” Ruth asked, perplexed, but when Roxy opened her mouth to explain, she cut her off: “I don’t care. Do you have a slightest idea of the panic that is going on in the airports right now? People are terrified, some of them believe it is the end of the world – they are running, they leave their homes and possessions behind in favour of a chance to get out safe from this crazy town, all transportation conjunctions are overcrowded! Can you imagine how hard it was to buy airplane tickets? I had to sell Lalonde family heirlooms to ensure that we have two safe tickets that won’t be outbid. We are leaving to New York. _Now_ ,” She emphasized the last word, visibly putting an end to the discussion.

Roxy took a more prominent step back. She had no other choice – if she couldn't reason with her mother, she had to escape. Jade seemed to understand her intentions, because she met her gaze and whispered quietly: _“I will make sure we get out of here.”_

 Luckily, Ruth stopped paying attention to anything but her daughter, so she didn’t hear anything.

“I am not going anywhere,” Roxy said firmly. “You should fly away to stay safe, please do, but give my ticket to someone else who needs it, because I am staying here. My friends need me, and it is my final decision.”

Ruth huffed furiously, refusing to argue, and grabbed Roxy by the sleeve with her healthy hand, pulling her towards herself.

“ _Yes_ , you _are_ leaving, I won’t let you stay in danger!”

Roxy opened her mouth to protest, but suddenly Jade stuck two fingers in the mouth and let out a loud, resounding whistle. In a millisecond Jack Noir appeared near her surrounded by green sparks of electricity. Ruth gasped, jolted and loosened her grip on Roxy, who used this opportunity to break free and hide under protection of Jack’s wide wings.

“Jack!” Jade commanded strongly and pointed at Roxy. “Take her and me away from here, but not too far!”

Jack acted immediately – two tentacles sprawled out of his sides, lit up with familiar green lighting; he wrapped each one around the girls, and the last thing Roxy saw before her vision became consumed with green brightness was her aghast mother who stared at them with an open mouth and looked like she has just been gravely betrayed.

Suddenly Roxy felt like nothing solid was supporting her legs anymore, she looked around and realized they were soaring up in the sky. She freaked out, imagining that Jack could drop her any second, she felt like she was slipping out of his embrace, so she tightened her grip; but in the process of wriggling and adjusting her position the scarf slid off her neck and next thing she knew she was watching it flying towards the ground, spiraling in the streams of air currents. Jack didn’t seem to intend to drop her, so she calmed down slightly, allowing herself to enjoy the view. They nearly reached the clouds, it was cold and windy, but also epic, like you flying on a magic carpet, but without any actual carpet. Roxy looked to the side and saw Jade staying perfectly calm wrapped in her tentacle, obviously using to this form of transportation. She smiled upon noticing Roxy’s gaze.

“How do you like it?”

“Freaky, to be honest. We are in the sky!”

“Yes, Jack loves flying,” Jade furrowed. “Are you afraid of heights? I can tell him to lower us down if you want to.”

“No, it’s not height that worries me. I mean... Isn’t he supposed to be the bad guy? He seems to be peaceful now, but nothing will stop him from dropping us onto the ground next minute.”

“Don’t worry about Jack. As long as you are with me you are safe from his malicious advances,” Jade said. “Thank you for deciding to stay, by the way.”

“It isn’t something I should be thanked for, it was the only and obvious choice,” Roxy was genuinely confused. “If I leave the game won’t be finished.”

“I beg to differ,” Jade mused. “I can imagine many people being eager to run away from danger, like your mother said, not caring what they leave behind...”

“Well, that is definitely not us! We won’t leave this job unfinished!”

Jade smiled warmly: “And that is very good news.”

They spent some more time in the air, it seemed that Jade wanted to let Roxy to enjoy the flight, and finally Jade reached out and patted Jack’s back. “To the ground, boy.”

He dived down so abruptly it forced Roxy to shut her eyes and pray her life won’t end with smashing into the surface, but Jack slowed down towards the end of their fall and glided smoothly through the air, putting both girls down gently.

“Good dog,” Jade patted his head; he closed his eyes and grumbled contently. “Best friend.”

They stayed in a relaxed silence for a while, and it was a sight so obscure – a small kind girl caressing a giant dog-like devilbeast and earning a positive response in return, that Roxy couldn’t help but saying:

“It’s amazing how he listens to you!”

Maybe she was too loud, or maybe it was the fact that Jack Noir forgot about her presence lost in Jade's petting, or wasn’t used to hearing her voice, but it disrupted the peace immediately. As if a toggle was switched into an ‘Assault’ position, Jack bared his fangs and growled at Roxy, his hand reached out towards the sword automatically. Jade was quick to react though, she flicked him at the nose and yelled: “Bad dog! Don’t attack my friend!”

Even though it stopped Jack from taking the sword, he growled even louder and Jade shooed him away, making him take off again. He flew up into the sky, soared in circles around them for a while and landed on a tall building nearby, becoming a motionless silhouette, like a gargoyle on a medieval cathedral. Jade sighed sadly and turned to Roxy:

“Sorry, you were right. He is still the bad guy, I am merely an exception. We shouldn’t put our guard down when we are around him, especially seeing how he is bewildered by unfamiliar circumstances.”

She looked around to see streets and places she was seeing for the first time too.

“Now... Where are we, exactly?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...by favourite character I meant, of course, Jack Noir.


End file.
